Should the BDBA and the Restaurant Association be able to kick the Food Truck event out of Spencer Smith Park?

By Pepper Parr

October 5^th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

City Council listened to two delegations today on who gets to use Spencer Smith Park.

Brian Dean – BDBA and Craig Kowalchuk – Restaurant Association

Everyone wants to use the space – Brian Dean, Executive Director of the Burlington Downtown Business Association describes the space as the Gold Standard when it comes to places people like to gather.

It is the locale for the two biggest events that take place in the city every year – Sound of Music and the Rotary Ribfest.

Foe the past three years it has been used as the locale for the Food Truck Festival.  They were expecting to use the locale for their 2024 event.

The BDBA wants them to find some other place.

The space was packed – it proved to be very popular with the younger crowd. There were lineups on the Promenade to get in.

The Recreation, Parks and Culture department had a report before the Standing Committee on how this issue was to be resolved. In their report they said:

Following re-occurring concerns from both parties previously stated, earlier this year, a Motion Memo was brought before Council regarding the event:

Direct the Director of Recreation, Community and Culture to work with the event organizer to explore alternative options for the location and configuration for the food truck festival outside of the downtown and report back to council in Q3 2023

It was decided that the event would carry on as planned for the 2023 year under the Delegated Authority of the Supervisor of Festivals & Events with the provision that the organizers continue to meet the Special Event Team (SET) guidelines. The organizer listened to recent feedback and the concerns expressed and subsequently offered to work with the BDBA and BRA to help market local area businesses through their extensive campaign.

It became clear during the two delegations that that idea wasn’t going to fly

Ben Freeman – Food Truck Association

The Burlington Restaurant Association argues that when the Food Truck event is taking place the restaurants take a huge financial hit – the BDBA feels it is in place to protect the hospitality sector and wants the park to be used for something other than an organization that takes business away from hospitality sector.

At some point Council is going to have to determine just how big a hold does the BDBA have on Spencer Smith?

The park is now at or very very close to capacity – and there is no way to expand.

In separate articles we set out the BDBA position, the Food Truck Association position and include the views of at least one of the restaurateurs – Martini House – on the impact the Food Truck event has on their business.

It is not a pretty picture – all three groups have strong points of view and data they believe supports there view.

The BDBA wants the Food Trucks kept out of Spencer Smith Park – some 45,000 Burlingtonians attend the Food Truck event.