After taking comments from restaurateurs and food truck vendors at last month’s public hearing, on May 20 the Village Board approved a law setting hours, permit fees and permissible locations for food trucks.
According to the new law, trucks must be at least 150 feet from any restaurant. They’re allowed in commercial and waterfront districts (e.g. the commercial area on Ulster Ave., the village beach area, Tina Chorvas Waterfront Park and the business district at the heart of the village). Hours of operation will be set at 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday–Thursday, 7 a.m. to 12 a.m. Friday, Saturday and holidays. Trustees decided to extend the hours on weekends, holidays and during special events to midnight to accommodate the late-night crowd.
The annual permit fee is $250. There is a one-time $150 fee for special events which multiple trucks at a single location can split.
The law will not apply to the ice cream trucks.
An earlier draft of the law would have capped the number of trucks in the business district at two and relegate any new trucks to the village outskirts. That was dropped.
Mayor William Murphy said the law is the village’s first regulation for the growing food truck industry and represents a balance between the interests of mobile entrepreneurs and brick and mortar restaurants.
“This law gives us a good basis to work with,” said Murphy. “We can always tweak it next year.”
There were no public comments at the May 20 meeting on the law, but last month Marc Propper, who owns Miss Lucy’s Kitchen and ’Cue, both on Partition St., as well as a food truck, said the trucks will be a “positive for the village” and not harm existing restaurants if the law were approved.
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