City paving way for food trucks, pop-up shops

Food trucks could soon pull up tosome of the city's most popular parksandpop-up shops could appear on sidewalks as Ottawa looks for imaginative ways to help small businesses survive the pandemic.

Those were two of the ideas to come before the city's transportation committee Wednesday, a week after council agreed to give restaurants adrastic break on patio fees.

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Coun. Tim Tierney, who chairs the committee, thanked Mayor Jim Watson for taking thelead to "cut red tape" for businesses during the pandemic.

"This isn't about taking away from brick and mortar," Tierney said of the food trucks."It's actually to create more of a holiday experience, because we're going to be doing much more of a staycation here in Ottawa."

In the past, the city has provided a limited number of spots in specific locations for food vendors to park their trucks. City staff arecurrently sorting out which parks are most suitable for the program, and expectto provide more details next week.

Staff can'tsay how many existing or new food trucks might want to set up, but they hope to allow themby early July, according to Laila Gibbons, director of roads and parking services.

"We are looking particularly at food trucks, those that have lost the ability to be at fairs or some of the events throughout the summer months, and businesses who want to open in a different capacity throughout the summer in order to get themselves through this pandemic, and through the tough times," she said.

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The committee also approved allowing retailers to apply forpermits to erectpop-up stallsoutside their stores, where they cansell goods and take payments without customers having to set foot inside.

Such sidewalk salesare typically only allowed during special events. The feefor such a permitwould be $62, in line with the reduced patio fee, plus a $340 application fee. Store owners would have to maintain a two-metre clearance for pedestrians, both for accessibility and for physical distancing.