Business Owners Sound Alarm on Menke Park Food Truck Growth

At Menke Park, the Planning Commission is weighing whether to expand its food truck program beyond the single truck originally approved, and six First Street and Montecito Drive business owners wrote in ahead of the Aug. 11 hearing (item 5B) to say the idea already threatens their livelihoods.

The complaints piled up: hairstylist Sonja Avallone reported customer gripes about the earlier burger truck; Michele Holmes, who overlooks the park from her studio, described clients circling 15 to 20 minutes for parking and canceling appointments, plus double-parked cars, vehicles in red and handicap zones, blocked driveways near Montecito Drive, and a near-miss involving a bike passing under a speeding car at Montecito and 1st. Swan Dive's Anne Furstenberg Burke said last year's truck already caused a sales dip from lost parking and cited pedestrian-vehicle conflicts on the narrow driveway. Peterson's Consign & Design owner Margie Peterson said she's personally been ticketed for lack of parking and described more near-misses between waiting customers and cars. Pilates ProWorks' Caitlin Gillmore and Zonda Fine Meats' Guillermo Soler both said the Town should prioritize rent- and tax-paying storefronts over food trucks competing for the same scarce spaces.

Several owners floated alternatives rather than an outright ban: move any expanded food-truck or micro-business activity to the larger Town Park, add permanent 'Shop Local' signage directing customers to First Street and Montecito Drive shops, and have the Commercial Code Modernization Project coordinate with the Chamber of Commerce and Community Development on the fix. Staff has not released a recommendation on the expansion in this correspondence batch, so the scope of any change — and whether it survives the pushback — remains open.