The Yucca Valley Planning Commission had a conversation about food vendors at their meeting on Tuesday night (January 9), citing what they felt was a bold move by one vendor to set up shop in a residential neighborhood.
Unpermitted food trucks, pop-ups and vendors have been a hot topic over the last month. No roadside or parking lot food or merchandise vending is currently allowed within town limits, with an exception for permits for special events. Vendors and the property owners that host them have been cited and fined by the town, leading to calls from the public to adjust the rules at town meetings and social media.
One food vendor, believed to be YumYum Freeway Tacos, has relocated from the Triangle Liquor Parking lot on Twentynine Palms Highway to a church parking lot in a residential neighborhood. At Tuesday’s meeting, Planning Commissioner James Henderson described the location of the pop up, which includes several tables, a tent, heavy duty cooking devices, and bright lights, as “right across from a house.
Deputy Town Manager Shane Stueckle described the situation to the Planning Commission, saying:
“Not within any regulation to be there. It’s the food vendor that you typically see at Triangle Liquor Store. We have issued citations to the property owner of Triangle Liquor, and they kicked them off of their property.
Staff has had interaction with the operators, they claim to not speak English, they claim to not have identification. If the Sheriff’s Department is brought in, which many times we have to do, it’s a very difficult scenario.
There will be photographs taken tonight, and another citation will be issued to the property owner.”
That property owner is the California Pacific Conference of the United Methodist Church. On Wednesday morning, we spoke with Pastor Charlene of the Yucca Valley United Methodist Church, which owns the property on which the vendors have set up, and may be liable for any fines incurred.
Pastor Charlene said that, though the vendors have been setting up since at least Friday night (January 5), she did not know about it until Tuesday. She said that the greater church organization and the bishop do not allow any vending to occur on church property, and that she is worried about being fined by the town.
On Tuesday evening, Pastor Charlene spoke with the vendors, who said that they did not speak English. Pastor Charlene informed them that they should leave the church’s property, and that the Sheriff’s Department had been called.
She said that the vendors did not leave immediately, and continued serving customers, but that they were gone by 6:30 p.m.
Pastor Charlene, who describes herself as 74 years-old and mobility-challenged, said that she was frightened by the customers. She said, quote, “some of their customers started talking back to me, and telling me what a bad person I was. I was a little bit scared.”
Pastor Charlene has heard from residential neighbors of the church that they are not happy about the food vending.
At the moment, the Town’s government has little recourse against food vendors operating illegally, and many residents appreciate having additional dining options in Yucca Valley.
The Town’s Council and Planning Commission are set to consider new regulations to allow for some legal vending at Town Council and Planning Commission meetings over the next month.
Stueckle offered up one possible set of punitive measures that can stop illegal vending, at least for a while.
“One of the code changes, after the council conducts their study. One of the changes may be that when we have operators without permits, that are operating illegally, that have no health department approval, confiscation of all of their equipment and all of their food. We have done that before with some of the fruit vendors on weekends and at other times, and that tends to cease that activity for a while, but ultimately it returns. It’s a hard situation to deal with.”
As of Wednesday night, the vendors have not returned to the corner of Onaga Trail and Joshua Lane.
