Proposed food truck, without fencing.

Sasquatch Sandwich Shop received a go-ahead from the Seaside Planning Commission last week to serve hot food and gourmet sandwiches from their food truck in the parking lot of the Hamilton Market.

William Montero and his family purchased the market in September 2019 from the Smith family, owners of Ken and Sons Select Family Market at 250 Avenue U.

In December and January, the truck’s owners, Jason Lancaster and Amy Myers, operated under a short-term sales provision which limited operation to four periods per year, not more than three consecutive days each period.

“Living in the south end of town with new expanded sidewalks and amenities about a mile from the concentrated tourist area of downtown shopping, sit-down and fast food restaurant,” Montero said. “What we’ve done is established our relationships in the neighborhood. One of the constant requests we’ve been getting are pre-packaged foods. These requests intensified when COVID shutdowns hit us in the last 12 months. As a result, we did a trial run with a temporary permit with a Seaside business license-permitted food truck Sasquatch Sandwich Shop in the market parking lot December and January weekends when it wasn’t raining.”

The service they did and the food they prepared were extremely well-received by the neighborhood, he said, and turned out to be a financial success.

“In canvassing neighborhood residents and businesses we received no objections, just requests to make it a permanent fixture in the south end of town,” Montero said. “I am here to make it happen.”

Montero asked planning commissioners to approve the longer-term permit under a zoning code provision that allows outdoor sales as long as the use is similar to the main use of the site.

As proposed, the food truck would be located within the existing parking lot on the west side of the market, using about 2% of the parcel area of more than 18,000 square feet — well below the code maximum of 15%.

“The outdoor mobile food truck serves prepared foods to local residents and visitors,” Planning Director Kevin Cupples wrote in a staff report. “The food truck would complement the current use of the building on the property which sells a wide variety of packaged food, beverages and household products.”

In 2018, Seaside restaurant owners largely opposed a request from another food cart owner to operate in Seaside, citing limited housing and the short tourist season, which, they said, put brick-and-mortar businesses at a disadvantage.

Prohibitions around food trucks and other outdoor sales are in place “to prevent people from finding an empty parking lot and locating there,” Cupples said.

Although the Sasquatch Sandwich Shop food truck was specifically identified in Montero’s application, the permit approval would be valid for licensed food trucks of similar size.

Montero has no plans to add outdoor seating. “It’s strictly people walk up, or they go shopping in the store, get their food, take the food to the beach or their residence back home. We have no picnic tables, benches, nothing.”

Commissioners Teri Carpenter, Kathy Kleczek, Lou Neubecker, Jon Wickersham and chairman Chris Hoth unanimously approved the application. Commission member Robin Montero, a co-owner of the Hamilton Market, recused herself.

“I am fully in favor of this,” Wickersham said. “I think it’s pretty exciting.”