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Council weighs changes to food-truck ordinance, staff to craft red-line for March vote
Summary
Council members debated keeping a 200-foot buffer on Highway 24 while creating approved vending zones (the park and a downtown parking lot) and a process for monthly collective food-truck days; staff will prepare red-line ordinance changes for the March meeting.
Council members on Tuesday debated how to update the town's food-truck rules, agreeing on principles but deferring final text to staff for a March vote.
Committee member (Speaker 5) proposed keeping the 200-foot distancing requirement on Highway 24 to protect restaurants "to protect the businesses that Jeremy and I talk to," while opening Hudson and designating a downtown parking lot and the park as approved vending zones. "I'm proposing to leave it 200ft on 24," the committee member said.
Staff (Speaker 9) recommended overlaying the 200-foot requirement across the whole town while also creating specific approved vending zones, a structure that would allow trucks to operate in those zones even if the overlay technically placed them within 200 feet of a brick-and-mortar business. "What we could do is you could still keep the 200 foot distance requirement and lay it over the entire town," staff said. The approach, staff added, would avoid appearing to favor some businesses over others while still permitting designated vending sites.
Council members debated operational details including whether a one-day-per-month allowance should apply per business or as a collective slot for the downtown area, how private events and festivals would count, and how bookings would be published. Staff and council suggested creating an application process for temporary "floating zones" on private property and posting bookings on the city website calendar to avoid conflicts.
Several members urged a conservative, data-driven rollout: trial the changes for a year, review how frequently zones are used and whether additional slots are needed. Staff said it would prepare red-line ordinance language reflecting the council's direction — including designating the park and a specified parking lot as approved vending zones — for consideration at the first March meeting.
The council recorded no final vote on the ordinance change at this meeting; members asked staff to prepare explicit language for the March agenda so the council can vote after review.
