Council asks staff to rewrite mobile-vendor rules and pursue food-truck pads at select locations

City staff told the Milton City Council they will review and return a revised mobile-vendor ordinance that would allow daily permits (rather than only year-long leases), set fee tiers, and use Parks & Recreation’s CivicRec system to manage reservations and documentation.

Jay (Parks staff) said the current ordinance only allows annual leases with a minimum monthly-hours requirement—an arrangement he described as impractical for food trucks and daily vendors. Staff proposed converting leases to daily permits, simplifying application requirements (name, contact, state business license, proof of insurance), and letting Parks set fees and manage reservations through CivicRec. Proposed introductory fees mentioned in the work session were $50 for Monday–Thursday and $100 for Friday–Sunday, with different pricing for holidays.

Jay proposed reducing the number of designated formal food‑truck locations from 10 in the current ordinance to five priority sites: two pads at Carpenter’s Park (where a CRA-funded pad is being considered), two at the Santa Rosa Street parking lot and one at the back of Russell Harbor Landing (primarily for holiday use). He described a pad roughly 40–50 feet in diameter that could accommodate truck‑and‑trailer combos by disconnecting the truck.

Council discussed whether to require insurance naming the city as additional insured. Parks staff proposed obtaining a copy of the vendor’s business insurance and explored whether requiring an additional-insured endorsement would discourage vendors; several councilmembers and outside commenters observed that event organizers and municipalities commonly request certificates of insurance. Staff said they would consult risk management and the city attorney and review examples from peer cities, including Pensacola.

Staff recommended handling many operational details at the departmental policy level—reservation windows, cooling-off rules to prevent monopolization of weekend slots, and enforcement needs tied to code enforcement capacity—while placing core requirements and the ability to set fees in the ordinance. Council asked staff to return a draft ordinance and a departmental policy proposal; staff said they would bring both back for council consideration in June and coordinate the ordinance work with CRA plans for a food-truck pad at Carpenter’s Park.

No council vote was recorded; staff will draft the ordinance and a Parks policy for council review.