From Dave’s Dogs Facebook page:
TO OUR CUSTOMERS:
Dave’s Dogs is shut down.
…
Dave’s Dogs opened for business in June 2014. From day 1, Dave has been committed to keeping his business in the county where he lives and loves.In the last year, since we started donating 100% of tips to help hard to adopt cats and dogs at the Prince William County animal shelter find new homes, thanks to your generosity we have paid $600-$800 every month in adoption fees to the shelter and vet fees for spay and neuters for nearly 50 animals that are now in their forever homes.
Dave pays 6% sales tax to the state of Virginia, more than 25% of which goes to Prince William County.
Dave donated 100% of his time and all of the food to the recent Prince William County animal shelter staff and volunteer appreciation event.
Dave gives discounts to Prince William County fire/rescue/police and the military. .
Dave worked with the local propane fund for the homeless last winter to accept donations and provide heaters and heat for Prince William County’s homeless–including a significant personal donation.
Dave accepted an invitation to provide lunch for the Prince William County police and fire training academy in Nokesville (on his day off).
Dave maintains all required business licenses, liability insurance, health permits, is licensed and bonded, and hires local residents to work in the trailer.
Today, we learned that Prince William County has shut us down due to an obscure outdated (and as yet not provided to us) zoning requirement that all food trucks operating in this county move locations every 90 minutes–a requirement that Dave is unable to meet and continue to provide high quality fresh food to citizens of this county that he has worked so hard to support.
In fact, in meeting with the county today, they suggested he might want to consider moving to Arlington.
We are stunnned.
Stay tuned. Dave will do everything in his power to stay in Prince William County doing what he does best. We will need your help.
Congratulations to Dave’s Dogs (Dave Gray). Today he prevailed after his presentation at Citizen’s Time. Sometimes government rules seem impossible to overcome. Dave’s Dogs fell into a gray area between zoning and laws governing peddling.
The BOCS did the right thing and waived the 90 minute rule until a more permanent solution could be implemented.
I was so impressed with the presentation during Citizens Time that I now want to drive to Woodbridge just to get one of those famous Dave’s Dogs. I would also tip well because I know those tips go to a good cause–rescuing homeless animals!
I know this hot dog stand! He sets up at the Lowes near me. During the summer I had to stop by either Lowes or the Home Depot across the street a few times a week. Every time I went to Lowes I grabbed a hot dog from Dave’s Dogs and they are awesome.
I am so glad their situation is going to be corrected.
What road is this Lowes on? I might just drive over for a hot dog, just to give the family my support. They really went about doing things the right way.
Thank you so much for posting about us! I’m Dave’s sister. We really appreciate the support. Note that once the county reported a zoning violation (an interpretation of the county code that we were not even made aware of) Lowe’s (corporate) was forced to terminate our contract. (This is in no way a criticism of Lowe’s; “our” store was as disappointed as we were, but their hands were tied.) As soon as we have a formal statement showing that with the waiver of the 90 minute rule that violation is no longer valid, we will proceed to work with their contracting company (you work with them, not the individual store) to get the contract back in effect. Hopefully, this will move quickly and we’ll be back at our regular Friday-Sunday Lowe’s spot soon. In the meantime, we are negotiating for a couple of “fill in” locations. Follow us on Facebook at fb.me/davesdogsva. We post each day about our location. (All in and around Lake Ridge/Dale City.) Thanks again. Oh, and if you come by, try the Reuben Dog with tater tots. That’s my favorite these days (it changes often).
Hi Karen, You all did a great job of presenting your case. You were clear, concise, professional, and to the point. You all are living proof that standing up for yourself and telling local government to fix things does work!!
Bless you for taking care of the animals also.