Policy for food trucks downtown closer to completion News Staff Tue, 04/30/2024 - 10:17 am
- (THOMAS WALLNER | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Graham City Council Member Jack Little speaks to the council regarding a draft policy for food trucks on the downtown square. The council approved a 90-day trial period for the draft policy which still must be presented to the council for approval at a later meeting.
Thomas Wallner editor@grahamleader.com
After receiving public comments at the beginning of April, the Graham City Council last week narrowed down details of a draft policy for food truck operations on the southern half of the downtown square.
The city received a request in January to have a food truck once a month on the Graham downtown square and the council tabled and denied the request Thursday, Feb. 15 in order to host a public hearing and have the public voice their concerns or support.
The public hearing with the draft policy available was held Monday, April 8 with speakers voicing concerns about some aspects of the policy.
“The policy was developed because several food truck vendors sought council approval to periodically locate their food truck on the square,” City Manager Eric Garretty said during the public hearing at the beginning of April. “Council determined that a policy was needed to regulate food trucks on squares to preserve the integrity of the square and ensure public health and safety.”
The council took those concerns and discussed changes to the draft policy during their meeting Thursday, April 25. The council Thursday approved to amend the draft policy to be on a 90-day trial period for three food trucks to be set up on the southwestern corner of Oak Street and Second Street.
“That’s part of what we’re tracking during this 90 day trial period is what is the demand,” Mayor Alex Heartfield said. “If there’s a demand for five spots, then we can evaluate that.”
During the public hearing earlier last month, Brickhouse Pizza & Taproom owner Bob Hart asked the city to raise the daily rates from $30 to $150. Daily rates of $75 per day were approved for food truck vendor spaces on the square, with vendors being allowed to park overnight for up to five consecutive days.
If there are more than three vendors who apply for a space on a given day, the city states in the policy that it reserves the right to allocate spaces based on a lottery system. Garretty said with trucks being able to stay overnight and for multiple days the remaining spaces would follow this system in that instance.
“The deal would be if you want to be here, and you get your space, that space is out. So now there’s only two available. If we get four (additional trucks) it would just be those four that would go in the lottery for the two remaining spaces,” he said.
One point of contention during the public hearing was the days of operation for food trucks, which the council approved to be changed from Sunday to any day of the week. Food truck vendors will still be required to get permits for the location and agree to city policies.
“There is paragraph seven in there where it says all food truck vendors shall endorse this policy by signature, the original document shall be maintained by the code enforcement officer,” Garretty said. “They’ll know what the rules are when they get handed the permit.”
All food trucks will be responsible for the utilities associated with operation of the food truck such as electrical service, water service, wastewater disposal and solid waste removal.
In an effort to keep the hours close to when the restaurants on the square close, the council approved hours of operation for food trucks from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. during the trial period.
City staff, in a previous meeting regarding food trucks on the square, said that cell phone information can be tracked during the trial period to determine downtown traffic. Garretty also said the code enforcement officer could inform the council of interest by reporting how often he turned away food trucks over the limit.
Cook said that he does not anticipate many of the area food trucks utilizing the downtown location due to previous obligations.
“Ninety percent of ours have paid $3,000-4,000 to be where they’re at to get electric and so forth. So they’re pretty stationary, they don’t want to move. So we’re going to have just a small number, I think, that would want to come out,” he said. “We’ve got a couple of new ones up here at the Gateway (Inn) that probably would try it. But again, they’re paying $200 a month at the Gateway parking lot.”
Also added to the amended draft policy was a section for instances where an event on the square would have food trucks operating.
“We did put in some exceptions in there, where there’s an approved event on the square, the city manager shall be authorized to approve (or) disapprove the presence of food trucks in conjunction with the event,” Garretty said. “In those instances where the food truck presence is directly related to an approved event, we won’t charge a rental fee. ...We’re mainly talking about one-day, two-day events.”
The additions approved by the council will be added to the amended draft policy for approval at a later council meeting. The council wanted the public to know that the policy, once approved, is temporary.
“I just think at this point that we make it very clear that this is a trial period,” Council Member Jack Little said. “All this is subject to change depending on what we find out during this trial period. So before everything’s in granite and stone… this is a trial period we’re looking at here.”
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