Vancouver food carts asked by church to help pay for $45K in city permit fees

By Soyoung Kim

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    VANCOUVER, Washington (KPTV) — Food cart owners in Vancouver are speaking out after they were asked to foot a bill for a traffic impact fee.

The food carts operate in the Living Hope Church’s parking lot and the hefty bill is for a city permit the church was required to obtain to allow them to stay. The question is who should pay the $45,000 bill?

Food cart owners said the church is asking them to help, but it’s something they said they can’t afford.

Maya Sanchez, owner of Maya Fruits and Juice Bar, calls her food cart a dream come true.

“Me and my sister-in-law Donna, we both came together,” Maya Sanchez, of Maya Fruits and Juice Bar, said. “It is for the Mayan culture.”

Kristian Butler of Krisey’s Kitchen, one of the handful of food carts operating out of the Living Hope Church’s property on Northeast Andresen Road in Vancouver, said their small business was also born out of a passion to share their food and culture.

“All about serving authentic New Orleans food and authentic New Orleans snowballs. Something you can’t get around Vancouver,” Kristian Butler, of Krisey’s Kitchen, said.

Now, they’ve been given an ultimatum from Living Hope Church to pay double their rent in order to stay.

“He only gave us the option to pay the $3,000 or get out,” Butler said.

The food cart owners said the church is asking them to take on the burden of paying for fees related to a city permit.

Ryan Lopossa, a transportation manager for the City of Vancouver, said the church was required to conduct a traffic study as part of a land use permit. Using information from the study, a traffic impact fee was calculated.

“The traffic impact fee is a fee that we collect for all new developments that are generating new trips,” Lopossa said. “We use that to make improvements to the transportation system within that fee area.”

The city said the current bill the church faces is around $45,000. Food cart owners said they’re being forced to make a tough decision.

“We unfortunately decided to close,” Sanchez said. “Other food carts are going to move forward with other locations.”

Fox 12 reached out to the church for comment and hasn’t heard back yet.

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