A quest to bring food trucks to The Dunes.

There were some unusual additions to the Nov. 17 Marina City Council meeting: fried artichokes and cream-filled churros.

In the hopes of bringing food trucks to The Dunes shopping center over the holidays, a group of Marina residents, along with food truck promoter Domingo Rivera, launched a campaign to make it a reality.

The group invited two food trucks – Castroville’s Choke Coach and Santa Cruz’ Ate3one – to the Marina City Hall parking lot on the night of the meeting, where the operators of both trucks spoke during public comment and offered city councilmembers some food.

Over the past months, no other subject has inspired such passion in Marina as the need for dining options in The Dunes, which is miles from the nearest restaurant. And after City Council denied developer Scott Negri’s “fast casual” restaurants proposal Oct. 26 for being too auto-centric, hopes for a brick-and-mortar dining establishment in the area were delayed by months, if not years.

While the organizers of the food truck campaign were all opposed to Negri’s project, they point out that even if it had been approved, there would still be no food in the area for months. Their campaign is about filling an immediate need.

“We’re trying to keep it neutral,” said Marina resident Karyn Wolfe Lynn on the night of the meeting. “We want to reach across the aisle.”

Aside from enjoying the food delivery stunt, Marina City Council expressed support for the idea, but is in no position to make it happen. The parking lots and streets around the shopping center and nearby theater are all privately owned, and permission to have food trucks the area must go through Marina Community Partners, the lead developer of The Dunes.

Upon learning this, Rivera got his proposal together and emailed it to MCP Nov. 20: Rivera’s hoping to bring in five to 20 trucks per day for four hours in the afternoon and four hours in the evening.

Rivera wants to keep the trucks as local as possible, and hopes to create a more vibrant food truck scene locally.

“Right now there’s not very much competition,” he says. “I want them to get better.”

Wendy Elliott, MCP’s community development manager, says she passed along Rivera’s proposal to the three entities that own MCP: Shea Homes, Shea Properties and Pulte Homes.

It’s not clear, though, if the companies might act in time to bring trucks in for the busy holiday shopping season. Asked when she might hear back from the three, and whether they might agree to the proposal, Elliott is circumspect.

“I have no idea,” she says.

Negri, meanwhile, is trying to redesign his project in a way that will get approved by the city. Among the changes he’s considering: adding a second story to one of the buildings and taking out one of the two proposed drive-thrus.

But he says the drive-thru for the Starbucks, his anchor tenant, is non-negotiable because the company told him it’s the only way they’d lease at the site.

“We’re trying to please as many people as we can, while still trying to make the project work,” Negri says.