Ordinance Paves Hawaii Food Carts’ Way to Mesquite

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

The Mesquite City Council has created a special exemption in city code to allow industrial businesses, new to Mesquite, to begin operations temporarily in an existing facility while constructing a permanent industrial facility. Immediately after enacting the new bill, the council granted a conditional use permit for a new manufacturere coming to Mesquite to do just that.

In a meeting held on Tuesday evening, Dec. 12, the council first voted to pass a bill to allow industrial use in certain commercially zoned spaces, only under carefully regulated conditions and on a temporary basis.

In a presentation to the council, Mesquite Deputy Development Services Director Simon Kim explained that the city master plan focuses intently on attracting new business and industry to Mesquite, in order to bring more jobs to the area.

But the staff had experienced certain situations where desirable employers had made good faith plans to build their industrial operations but needed a temporary place to begin operations while they were under construction, he said.

“In these cases, they need to find a temporary location to do their business,” Kim said. “And it is likely that (any facility that they could find in the city) would not be consistent with the zoning requirements.”

The proposed amendment to the code would allow this to happen, Kim said.
Mayor Pro Temp Wes Boger, who was presiding at the meeting in Mayor Al Litman’s absence, opened a public hearing on the item. There was no public comment.

During Council comments, Council member Brian Wursten expressed concerns about setting a precedent in allowing more extensive use on these parcels.

Kim explained that the permit was only for temporary use for one year, renewable annually for up to three years. In addition, the situation would be only under strict conditions.
“If they failed to meet the conditions, then we can rescind the permit,” he said.
“This would be only a case-by-case situation,” added City Manager Peter Jankowski. “I don’t see this as a tool that we use routinely. It is more as a rare exception; just to help these companies to get established here permanently.”
“Anything we can do to help businesses come to town: factories, manufacturing – those are great jobs; this helps that in my opinion,” agreed Boger.

Council member Paul Wanlass made the motion to adopt the bill. The item was approved with a unanimous vote.

Next on the agenda was a request by Hawaii Food Carts for a Conditional Use Permit to begin operations at a building located at 1115 W. Pioneer Blvd in a Commercial General Zone.
Mesquite Development Services Director Richard Secrist explained that the location proposed was Building 2 in the Kestrel Court development.

Secrist added that Hawaii Food Carts was making the request under the ordinance which had just been passed. “As we have said, any business applying for this would have to be in a state of transition,” Secrist said. “It would have to be either from a move like Hawaii Food Carts is doing, or some emergency situation such as a building burns down and they need to find a temporary location.”

Secrist pointed out that Hawaii Food Carts had entered an agreement some time ago to purchase city property and build their manufacturing facility in the industrial section of the city. But construction had not started yet on the facility.
“In the meantime, their facility in Portland (Oregon) is closed down and they need to keep operating in the interim,” Secrist added. “So they found this facility.”

Secrist stated that industrial use would not normally be allowed there, but the recently passed ordinance could solve the dilemma.

Staff had determined that Hawaii Food Carts would meet the necessary conditions to operate from this location for a time. Thus the staff was recommending approval for one year, which could be extended for a total of three years.

The matter was open to public hearing without any comment.

Wursten expressed support for Hawaii Food Carts, but said that he would like to see the matter brought back to council at the end of the year for a status report.
“The City has given them that property at a very good price,” Wursten said. “And nothing has been done on it yet. So I would like to have a stipulation placed on it that something goes vertical on that property within the next year.”

Secrist said that this condition could easily be added to the proposal.
Council member Pattie Gallo made a motion to approve the conditional use permit as proposed with the condition that the company report back to the council after the first year.

The council approved this motion with a unanimous vote.