A new breakfast spot in Del Ray stirred up a discussion at the Planning Commission on Tuesday about whether Alexandria has too many trailers.
The plan is to add a pair of trailers for the food truck French Toast to the lot behind 1506 Mount Vernon Avenue. It was docketed for the consent calendar, but Planning Commissioner Mindy Lyle said the trailers represent a negative trend taking place across city planning in Alexandria.
“I know, even when I vote against this, it will still pass,” Lyle said. “I’m the one who called and said ‘this was operating without permits.’ I have a very strong feeling about the fact that we continue to add temporary trailers that end up being there for five to ten years. They’re not truly attached to a business.”
Lyle said the Planning Commission has talked before about putting together a more concrete policy about how to handle trailer applications but has kicked the can down the road.
“In our August retreat, we were supposed to work on temporary trailer text amendments. That never happened,” Lyle said. “We still don’t have those text amendments.”
In the meantime, Lyle argued that continually adding new trailers like French Toast is unfair to brick and mortar establishments.
“There are two other restaurants that serve breakfast within a stone’s throw of these temporary trailers,” Lyle said. “They are in brick and mortar businesses — Junction Bakery and Matt and Tony’s. They both have significant overhead, both employ significant numbers of people. Yet we’re approving something shoved into place and operating with minimal staff and probably doesn’t do well in the winter months.”
Lyle argued that the Planning Commission and city staff need to take a comprehensive look at temporary trailers in Alexandria.
“I come from a party of the country where temporary trailers are the norm for everything, including schools,” Lyle said. “I think we need to start being very conscious of what we’re approving.”
Others on the Planning Commission were sympathetic to the argument that the Planning Commission needs to help craft a more permanent temporary trailers policy, but said it was unfair to cut down French Toast’s application on those grounds.
“From the community experience perspective I support an application like this because it represents a combination of a business use the community is interested in based on foot traffic and a land owner who is willing to host that use for a period of time,” said Planning Commissioner Melissa McMahon. “Ideally it does result in finding a brick and mortar space. We don’t have good ways of supporting interim restaurant businesses starting up on a shoestring like that on space that the city owners.”
McMahon said the City should explore more right of way uses that aren’t just for adjacent businesses.
“In this instance, I’m supportive of this and I’m supportive of continued exploration of how we use trailer regulations,” McMahon said.
Chair Nathan Macek said the impact on other businesses nearby also shouldn’t factor into the Planning Commission’s business.
“Our rule here in reviewing this is not to evaluate the merits of this business vs other businesses and balance the playing field for competitive enterprises,” Macek said, “it’s to evaluate whether the external impacts of this trailer will have negative impacts on the community, what are those impacts, and have we mitigated those impacts.”
Macek said he’s satisfied that the staff and the business found a “reasonable way to accommodate this business and approve it in a way that doesn’t negatively impact surrounding uses.”
The proposal was approved in a six to one vote, with Lyle opposing.
