Lantana staff to draft food-truck ordinance after council debates limits for commercial property

Town Manager Brian Reznicki and staff opened a wide-ranging discussion about food trucks at a Nov. 21 workshop, with council members signaling they want food trucks allowed for town-sponsored events and for approved private rentals but generally kept off commercial corridors.

Nicole, the staff presenter on code changes, summarized the prior workshop consensus: "We will only allow food trucks to operate on our public property if they have a town sponsored event going on." Council members pressed staff to draft ordinance language for both public-property events and private-property use that would require owner authorization, proof of insurance and a simple site layout.

Council members debated whether to allow semi-permanent truck setups on private commercial parcels. One member warned that when a mobile vendor becomes effectively permanent—"bolted down to the asphalt"—it can create a zoning issue because it uses required parking for an on-site business. "It becomes in terms of zoning...now we need to talk about is that the primary use," the council member said.

Staff and council also discussed fairness to brick-and-mortar restaurants, possible hour limits (for example a 12-hour cap per day), and enforcement practicality. Town staff noted a legal constraint: certain inspection and health regulations are governed by state law, limiting local inspection authority. As the town manager put it, municipalities can regulate where and how long trucks may park, "but that's pretty much where our ability to regulate them ends."

The council asked staff to draft an ordinance for first reading that would: confirm town-sponsored events as permitted on public property; define a permitting path for private rentals and special events; and consider explicit prohibitions for routine food-truck operations on commercial nonresidential parcels. Staff committed to return with proposed language at a future workshop or council meeting.