<div dir="ltr"><div>Ghost kitchens on wheels raise some really interesting zoning problems.... here's an excerpt from my 2021 Annual ZiPLeR Awards issue (Zoning and Planning Law Report, published by West/Thomson Reuters):</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:150%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><a name="_Hlk89450589"><b>"I’m the ZEO and I’ll Have
Fries with That" Award</b></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">This first time ever ZiPLeR Award
goes to all the unfortunate zoning enforcement officers who now have to deal
with an entirely new use that resists categorization – ghost kitchens on wheels.<a style="color:rgb(5,99,193)" href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span class="gmail-MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align:super"><span class="gmail-MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align:super"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%">[i]</span></span></span></a> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Ghost kitchens,<a style="color:rgb(5,99,193)" href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title=""><span class="gmail-MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align:super"><span class="gmail-MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align:super"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%">[ii]</span></span></span></a>
as we have come to experience them during the pandemic, are ones that prepare food
for name brand restaurants but are not located at any dining establishment. You
may order your food online from your favorite nearby dive, but it is prepared in
a ghost kitchen elsewhere, picked up by a delivery service (e.g., Uber Eats,
DoorDash, and Grubhub), and seamlessly delivered to you. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> Now, Reese Technologies, the largest parking
lot owner in the country with over 5,000 properties under management and bolstered
by the $1 billion that the Japanese investment firm SoftBank raised for it last
year, is bringing ghost kitchens on wheels to a parking lot near you. There are
going to be plenty of them. Wendy’s, for example, recently entered into an agreement
with Reef under which Reef is to open 700 ghost kitchens for them in this
country, Britain, and Canada. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> The Reef ghost kitchens are full-service
kitchens on wheels, preparing as many as 300 to 400 meals on weekdays at one
location in Massachusetts. The meals they send out are in packaging from the
restaurant you ordered from, so you will have no idea that they came from this new
kind of meals on wheels.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">When one of these ghost
kitchens shows up in the parking lot next to your luxury building, who you
going to call? Not Ghostbusters, but the ZEO. Ghost kitchens are on wheels, so
they are not structures under most zoning regulations. They are commercial
operations for sure, but many of the commercial parking lots are going to be in
commercial districts where restaurants are permitted. Does this use
require a certificate of zoning compliance or similar recognition? </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </p>
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<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%">
<div id="edn1">
<p class="gmail-MsoEndnoteText" style="margin:0in 0in 0in 0.5in;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><a style="color:rgb(5,99,193)" href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title=""><span class="gmail-MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align:super"><span class="gmail-MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align:super"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:150%">[i]</span></span></span></a>
Anissa Gardizy, “The newest ‘ghost kitchen’ could be coming to a parking lot
near you,” Boston Globe (Nov. 28, 2021) <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/11/28/business/newest-ghost-kitchen-could-be-coming-parking-lot-near-you/" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/11/28/business/newest-ghost-kitchen-could-be-coming-parking-lot-near-you/</a>
</p>
</div>
<div id="edn2">
<h1 style="margin:0in 0in 0in 0.5in;line-height:normal;break-after:avoid;font-size:16pt;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:rgb(46,116,181);font-weight:normal"><a style="color:rgb(5,99,193)" href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title=""><span class="gmail-MsoEndnoteReference" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;vertical-align:super"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:windowtext"><span class="gmail-MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align:super"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:150%">[ii]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext"> Anissa
Gardizy, </span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“</span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">What are ‘ghost
restaurants’? That spot on your delivery app might not actually exist,” Boston
Globe (May 23, 2021). </span><a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/05/23/business/that-restaurant-you-see-your-delivery-app-might-not-actually-exist/?p1=Article_Inline_Text_Link" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/05/23/business/that-restaurant-you-see-your-delivery-app-might-not-actually-exist/?p1=Article_Inline_Text_Link</span></a><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"> </span></h1>
</div>
</div></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Dwight Merriam,</div><div>FAICP</div><div><a href="http://www.dwightmerriam.com">www.dwightmerriam.com</a></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Mar 8, 2022 at 6:12 PM Nathan Chung via MassPlanners <<a href="mailto:massplanners@masscptc.org">massplanners@masscptc.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div>Dear Travis,</div><div>I think ghost kitchens/cloud kitchens are typically hosted in shared commercial kitchens, so if you look for shared commercial kitchens, you will find them most likely. Here is one in Somerville: <a href="https://www.foundationkitchen.com/" target="_blank">https://www.foundationkitchen.com/</a> If you go to <a href="https://www.foundationkitchen.com/shop" target="_blank">https://www.foundationkitchen.com/shop</a>, you can see their members and order.</div><div><br></div><div>And Serve Food MA in Holyoke is a comm kitchen in my region of Western MA: </div><div><a href="https://servema.com/" target="_blank">https://servema.com/</a> They specifically market themselves as a cloud kitchen provider. Not sure how well they are doing.</div><div><br></div><div><img src="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1-OPtdt8CN77rEvZQa3gUhUJafEdAibtj&export=download" width="96" height="48"></div><div>Nathan Chung, Grants Administrator<br></div><div>Planning & Sustainability</div><div>City of Northampton</div><div>210 Main St, City Hall, Northampton, MA 01060</div><div><a href="mailto:nchung@northamptonma.gov" target="_blank">nchung@northamptonma.gov</a></div><div>(413) 587-1262</div><div><a href="http://www.NorthamptonMA.gov/PLAN" target="_blank">www.NorthamptonMA.gov/PLAN</a></div></div></div></div><input name="virtru-metadata" type="hidden" value="{"email-policy":{"state":"closed","expirationUnit":"days","disableCopyPaste":false,"disablePrint":false,"disableForwarding":false,"enableNoauth":false,"persistentProtection":false,"expandedWatermarking":false,"expires":false,"isManaged":false},"attachments":{},"compose-id":"20","compose-window":{"secure":false}}"></div>
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