City open to food truck rule changes
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
After setting out what several Key West food truck owners consider onerous restrictions on when and where the popular eateries can operate, city planners have now indicated they may be open to compromise.
Key West City Planner Don Craig held a public workshop Wednesday, Nov. 12, to hear comments on the proposed new ordinance, which sets out a list of 46 operational standards and minimum requirements for truck operations. The proposed requirements include limiting hours of operation from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4-8 p.m., having to move from the site of operation at the end of each day, and having to use a fixed-base “commissary kitchen” as a central food preparation area for food delivery, storage and waste collection.
About 30 people attended the workshop, including three members of the Key West Planning Board, which postponed voting on the proposed truck ordinance at its last meeting when members said they wanted to attend the workshop first. And Craig, who has strongly advocated strict regulations of the low-cost eateries, told the audience he was there to listen.
“Once we’ve gotten all the questions and digested them, we can then make the appropriate amendments to the food truck ordinance. We recognize that food trucks as a dining alternative are very popular across the state,” he told the crowd. “We want to hear from you.”
Carl Mott, who said he is interested in applying for a food truck license, criticized the limited hours of operation, saying Key West seems “starved” for small, interesting food choices. The city should be nurturing the trucks, not dampening enthusiasm for them, he said.
“It comes off as very punitive, this small, broken up set of [operating] hours. It seems awfully over the top,” he told Craig.
The purpose of the 10 a.m.-2 p.m., 4-8 p.m. limits are to keep food trucks from parking at one location for long periods of time, Craig said.
“All of a sudden, the mobile vendor is not mobile,” he said.
One possible alternative, Craig suggested, would be to set a maximum number of operating hours and allow food truck operators to choose which hours they want to be open.
One surprising complaint at the workshop came from existing food cart owners, who operate on public property, such as city beaches, and which have their own set of operating regulations. Michael Burge, who operates “Beach Bites,” a mobile unit selling food at Smathers Beach, said he had just purchased a mobile vendor’s license for $50,000. Will food trucks that only have to pay an annual $500 administrative fee plus a $750 solid waste collection fee be able to park at the beach and compete with him, Burge asked?
“That defeats the $50,000 I spent,” he said.
Craig responded that the proposed food truck ordinance is for mobile eateries operating only on private, not public, property.
“We’re here to listen to you and hear what you have to say. You’re a lot more familiar with operating a food truck than we are,” Craig told the audience.
Despite Craig’s apparent willingness to include truck operators’ ideas into the new regulations, Owen Trepanier, a local urban planner and development consultant who is working with four food truck owners, was still skeptical. The workshop was mostly a defense of the proposed ordinance, he said.
“There was a lot of defensive discussion of why the ordinances need to be written the way they were written. What I hope will happen with a new city planner taking over, is that they take some time to hear what the food truck owners have to say,” Trepanier said, referring to the fact Craig has resigned as city planner. His last day will be Nov. 21.
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