Starting a food truck or vending at a local public market in Boise just got simpler. Boise City Council Tuesday unanimously approved an ordinance rolling back the city’s licensing requirements for mobile food vendors and dropping the need for workers to be background-checked.
“A lot of what was required was duplicative,” said Amber Beierle, Executive Director of the Boise Farmers Market.
Andrea Cantor, Boise’s Economic Development Advisor said the city’s previous requirement for vendors to obtain a mobile eating and drinking establishment license was essentially the same as what was also required by Central District Health.
While workers were required to get a background check, employers were not obligated by the city to take any action on the results.
Concerns from vendors and market operators came to light last year, when the city realized it was not fully enforcing existing code related to mobile food vendors. Operators balked at the amount of paperwork and fees needed to be compliant.
Beierle, along with organizers of the Capital City Market, worked with the city to share their concerns of the burdensome process.
“It's the path to ‘yes,’” Beierle quipped, complementing the city. “To really smart businesses and things that are growing the community and small businesses.”
The city backed off enforcing the more confusing aspects of the previous code last summer and work on a fix continued through the fall before finally arriving before the city council this winter.
The changes only impact the licensing process and do not change any of the health and safety requirements for food vendors. But the reduction in paperwork will save operators hours of work and potentially hundreds of dollars in licensing fees and background check costs, Beierle said.
"It's a nominal amount that it saves us. But every little bit in a nonprofit like ours is helpful," she said.
It will also cost the city some revenue; around 350 applicants last year paid about $12,000 in fees. Cantor said the trade-off is well-worth making it easier to run small businesses, which Mayor Lauren McLean echoed during this week’s City Council meeting.
“We wanted to do everything we could to cut red tape and make it possible, especially for these start-up businesses and food trucks to be able to be at markets and throughout the community because Boiseans love them so much,” the Mayor said.
The Boise Farmers Market, at 1500 Shoreline Drive, opens for the season Saturday, April 6. The Capital City Market on the Grove Plaza and 8th Street downtown opens Saturday, April 13.
