News

Everett, Washington ordinance gives food trucks more flexibility

September 11, 2019

The Everett, Washington city council has voted 6-0 to pass a food truck ordinance that will allow mobile vendors access to select public right of way locations, the Washington State Food Truck Association announced in a press release.

"What's unique about this new ordinance that the city of Everett just passed includes the ability for the WSFTA to manage an on street vending program saving the city time and money from having to operate their own permitting program," Lori Johnson, executive director, told Food Truck Operator in an email.

The code change will:

• Eliminate the added special business license requirement for food trucks.
• Eliminate the fingerprinting and criminal background check.
• Change the distance food trucks can park from a permanent eating establishment.
• Minimize the protection zone around the arena.
• Allow food trucks to apply for right of way access via a street permit program managed by the Washington State Food Truck Association in partnership with a software platform called Best Food Trucks.

Previously, mobile food vendors in Everett were only able to vend from private property locations. The street permit program allows a rotating variety of food trucks to utilize selected public right-of-way spaces during limited hours.

The WSFTA has been managing various food truck pod/lot locations around the state and will manage each of these new Everett locations. There is no charge to the city of Everett, but the association charges the mobile food vendors a small daily booking fee, which is used to cover the cost of their street permits and to manage the locations, support the association's state and local advocacy efforts, and to help establish more vending locations.

Best Food Trucks, the online booking system platform, allows local government to find the location of each permitted food truck on a particular day, as well as the ability to view specific food truck data that includes the start and end time of service, the sales per location, preferred cuisine types, customer feedback and more. 

Local residents will soon be able to access the food truck locations, schedules, menus, and even place food orders online by logging on here.