NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A bevy of gourmet food trucks dotted Flagler Avenue on Friday offering a range of cuisines.
It's third time this year the Food Truck Bazaar has been in New Smyrna Beach at the invitation of city officials.
Whether the mobile vendors become permanent fixtures here has yet to be decided.
As of now, special events are the only time food trucks are permitted in New Smyrna Beach.
A proposal to change city law to allow the mobile vendors in town -- one that's been through several different versions -- will be before the Planning and Zoning Board on Sept. 10.
The latest proposal would eliminate a requirement for a food truck operator to already own a restaurant in the city and would not restrict the number of food trucks someone could own and operate. The mobile vendors could only set up shop on property that is already considered developed and also could not be located in public rights of way. A sunset clause has been added to the proposal that would remove the regulation allowing food trucks after two years unless the City Commission agrees to extend it or re-adopt it.
City Planning Manager Gail Henrikson is recommending the board deny allowing the mobile vendors on a permanent basis. One reason is that doing so could be seen as undermining the investments made by the city's Community Redevelopment Agency and business owners in brick and mortar buildings.
"The policy direction we're seeing from the City Commission is that they want to encourage programs and uses that will enhance and beautify the city," Henrikson said. "And as planning staff we just do not see how allowing food trucks on perhaps developed, but abandoned land or land that's not currently being used, really meets that policy direction from the City Commission."
Talk of allowing food trucks in the city permanently began in July. Mark Rakowski, a local land use planning consultant, asked that city law be amended on behalf of the owners of two local restaurants -- Café Heavenly on Flagler Avenue and Sea Vista Tiki Bar on Atlantic Avenue -- who want to add food trucks as part of their businesses.
Rakowski originally proposed that regulations be changed so that only owners of existing restaurants be allowed to have food trucks and that each restaurant owner be allowed to have no more than two trucks or trailers. After hearing mixed reviews from Canal Street and Flagler Street restaurant owners, he initially proposed the mobile vendors be prohibited in the Flagler Avenue, Canal Street and East 3rd Avenue commercial districts.
Some Planning and Zoning Board members felt the initial proposal was too restrictive, especially about where the mobile vendors would be allowed to locate.
"And if you think about it, it is kind of arbitrary to prohibit them on Flagler, Third (Avenue) and Canal Street but allow them to set up on U.S. 1 and State Road 44 where there are also other restaurants," Henrikson said.
After getting feedback from the board, Henrikson worked with Rakowski to tweak his proposal. She said in a memo to the Planning and Zoning Board that she and her staff attempted to find a way to justify a cap on the number of food trucks. However, she said the majority of cities she researched do not limit the number of trucks, but do restrict the areas where they can operate. Without any economic facts to back it up, a cap would be "arbitrary," she wrote in the memo.
Food trucks are not permitted in Daytona Beach, Holly Hill, Orange City, Ormond Beach and South Daytona. Like New Smyrna Beach, food trucks are allowed for only special events in Daytona Beach Shores, Port Orange and Volusia County.
Any change to New Smyrna Beach's land development regulation to permit food trucks would ultimately have to be approved by the City Commission.
Cindy Jones, president of the Canal Street Historic District, a group of about 80 business and property owners, said that restaurant owners in her group are pretty much "evenly divided" on the issue.
"Some want it, some don't," she said.
Bob Wiley, who owns the former Pennysaver building on Canal Street and plans to put a restaurant there, said he believes if someone wants to do business in town they should "go ahead and build a bricks and mortar place."
"I'm not in favor of them other than a couple of special events a year because I just believe that a lot of food trucks are people that come in from out of town they take advantage of it and they leave," he said. "They don't pay taxes, they don't do a lot of the infrastructure work."
Wiley said he was also worried how adding food trucks would impact parking for other restaurants, which are required to have a certain number of spaces.
However, Joel Paige, one of the operators of Thai Mango on Canal Street, told the Planning and Zoning Board last month that he planned to purchase a food truck and said he saw the mobile vendors bring tourists to Austin, Texas, when he lived there.
"I think they fuel the economy in towns," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment