Food Trucks In Norfolk Still Up For Debate

During last night's City Council meeting, council members continued the drawn out discussion on permitting food trucks downtown.  Since the last meeting when the recommendations of the City Planning Commission recommendation were shot down, planners have been working on an amended solution with shorter hours of operation and stricter rules for where food trucks could set up, which they proposed last night.  The Pilot had an article about it this morning, but in watching the meeting, there was a lot more to it.

CC Image courtesy of Krynsky on Flickr

First, the hours of operation don't really seem like a deal-breaker anymore.  The new recommendation proposed ours from 7:00 am to 12:00 am everyday.  After seeing this, most of city council actually wanted that changed from 6:00 am to 12:00 am Sunday to Thursday, and 6:00 am to 2:00 am on Friday and Saturday.  Everyone seemed okay with that.  You don't see too many people downtown after midnight on a random Tuesday anyway.  So that's basically a win for Team Food Truck.

Next, was a discussion on the type of food truck allowed.  The proposal only allowed trucks/trailers where the cook remained inside (I forget the term they used).  But basically something like a hot dog stand where the cook stood outside wasn't allowed.  Vice Mayor Anthony Burfoot actually fought this and asked why both couldn't be allowed.  We'll see where that goes.

Finally, where can food trucks go?  The new proposal didn't just offer up the six randomly placed lottery spots downtown, as The Pilot mentioned.  They also offered up a number of city owned properties, including The PLOT, Town Point Park, Scope Plaza, the MacArthur Square Light Rail Stop and other various spots downtown and north of Brambleton Ave. around the proposed Arts District.  So this argument is really what everything boils downtown and where things were tabled for the next meeting.  

Generally, it seemed to me that most of city council is on board with food trucks but Vice Mayor Anthony Burfoot continues putting up a fight for stricter regulations regarding location.  I say let things fly for a year with no regulations on a trial basis.  See how it goes and if there are any negatives, then put some rules in place.  But don't kill this thing before it even gets started.