Davidson scales back plans for downtown Charles City food truck and parklet

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

Plans to construct a parklet to service a pair of complementary downtown eateries have been shelved as Dean Jewelers owner Dave Davidson will be scaling back his expansion from jewelry into food service.

Earlier this year, Davidson began working to convert a portion of the Main Street building that houses his jewelry store into a small ice cream shop, “Dean Treats,” as a way of bringing something new to downtown Charles City’s food options.

As that project progressed, so did the scale of the endeavor. Purchasing a food truck, Davidson made plans for “Dean Eats,” which would serve hot dishes in conjunction with “Dean Treats.”

Tying the two businesses together, Davidson also envisioned installing a parklet alongside his property on Kelly Street, which would create seating to accommodate both businesses.

Davidson hoped to have both businesses and the parklet ready to go by early July, but the process of getting City Council approval for the parklet has not worked with that timeline.

The city has no established ordinances regarding parklets, which are semi-permanent structures that would be placed in parking space alongside the street. When the matter was brought forward in late April, the council’s immediate response was that it would be unfeasible to craft a comprehensive policy regulating parklets this year.

While the council suggested it would be inclined to approve a conditional use permit for Davidson as a trial run for to see what they would want in a comprehensive policy, multiple workshop meetings saw discussion on the matter without a commitment to bring approval of the permit to vote.

When last discussed on Wednesday, May 24, council member Phoebe Pittman suggested that the permit explicitly stipulate that a parklet must accompany an existing food service business with a physical location, and council member Patrick Lumley stated that he wouldn’t want to see the permit request on the agenda until after “Dean Treats” is already actively in operation.

Outside of the parklet issue, Davidson was informed by the council during the Wednesday workshop that the “Dean Eats” food truck would also need to be regularly moved in accordance with city parking policy and that semi-permanent parking for food trucks on city streets would be a separate matter that would eventually need to be addressed.

Davidson said at the meeting that there would be no reason for him to put in a parklet without an accompanying business and that uncertainty over whether or not he would be allowed to utilize a parklet was in itself impeding his plans to move forward. Two days later he announced over social media that he would be scaling back the project.

“After three City Council planning meetings, a consensus could not be reached and my timeline did not allow waiting until the fall of this year to get a ‘maybe,’” wrote Davidson in a social media post on Friday.

While the “Dean Treats” ice cream business is still moving forward as planned, Davidson has put the food truck up for sale and does not intend to construct a parklet just to accommodate the ice cream store on its own.

Davidson criticized the council’s “wait-and-see” approach and said that he is looking at possible alternative ideas for next year, but at the moment his plans consist of getting “Dean Treats” open on July 1.