Tigard adopts new food-cart code, bans drive-throughs and enacts revised fees

The Tigard City Council on Jan. 27 adopted Ordinance No. 25-1, creating a standalone chapter in the Tigard Community Development Code to regulate food carts and larger “food cart pods,” added a provision that prohibits drive-through service for food carts and pods, and approved an associated amendment to the citywide fees and charges schedule. The council declared the ordinance an emergency and voted unanimously to adopt the measures.

The code change moves food-cart approvals out of the city’s temporary-uses chapter and establishes two distinct categories: accessory food carts (1–3 carts on a property) and standalone food cart pods (groups of 4–20 carts that function as the principal use on a site). Assistant Community Development Director Scowler Warren told the council the new chapter was intended to create a clearer, lower-fee pathway for entrepreneurs while protecting public infrastructure and health and safety.

Warren said the draft standards require accessory carts to be on paved surfaces, meet normal setbacks, maintain minimum separation and fire-safety spacing, and prevent permanent utility hookups. For food cart pods, staff recommended locations only in zones that allow eating-and-drinking establishments; a permanent building with restroom access for customers (required where accessory structures exceed 800 square feet); stalls of no more than 375 square feet with permanent utility connections; prohibition on temporary storage containers such as shipping containers; and…