Boulder regulations choke AS food trailer

[47WeeWind]

Inspired ideas are often stymied by government regulations, in this instance by food service regulations for the City of Boulder, Colorado. Some details can be found in this linked article:

Boulder's StrEat Chefs trailer, started by Hosea Rosenberg, stalls out - Boulder Daily Camera

I've noticed a few converted-to-food vending Airstream trailers for sale recently. Is it the tough economy, or too much government regulation that's causing people to give up on this particular Aluminum dream?

[Jammer]

Regulatory compliance is a central part of running a food trailer, and is just as important as getting a suitable location and the correct product mix. Boulder is not alone in disallowing mobile food vendors entirely.

I have friends who have worked the county fair circuit in other (non-Airstream) trailers and while the regulatory climate gradually worsens each year there has been no sea change.

[Gene]

Have you ever gotten sick after eating at a restaurant? Gastroenteritis is no fun. So restaurant regs are good things so long as they don't go too far. After reading the entire article, I see Boulder is working on a way of permitting trailer restaurants. Some of it is to prevent competition with established restaurants and that is not good as they are really different types of food providers. But Boulder is a small, very busy city with few places to park and trailers may not fit in well in much of the city.

Gene

[safari62]

Since we do have not read the contents of the regulations it would be wrong to say they are limiting creativity and new business ideas just because of the restrictions now in place. I assume they were already on the books before these vendors showed up? So they had to know in advance what these regulations were.

But if these laws are unfair they can be revised. It requires up close and personnal interaction with your local Representatives or town counsel members. This can be a long and unpleasant exercise that many businesses may not be able to afford.

Unfortunatley for these wheeled enterprises, the brick and mortar establishments that are paying real estate and business taxes have the ear of town officials. They can and have some would say rightfully so worked to put in place more restrictions on locations the vendors can park. Or maybe it is just another way to limit the competition.

And no one could complain about food saftey issues and possible environmental hazzards from chemicals ao gray water systems dumping.

Some GOV regulatons are there to help protect the general public. To many laws? Sometimes not enough.

But I would dare to say some of these regulations with be very difficult to read and understand, and associated fees will be an inhibiting factor for any start up.