• New Bedford council on verge of approving food truck ordinance

  • NEW BEDFORD — The city is on the verge of allowing food trucks to set up in public places during daytime hours.
    • email print
    Councilors Henry Bousquet of Ward 3 and James Oliveira of Ward 1 have co-sponsored a change to city bylaws that would allow operation of stationary food trucks during the day; currently, they're only allowed between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m., the result of a restrictive ordinance enacted 15 years ago.
    The proposed ordinance has already passed its first reading and is expected to be easily confirmed at the council's next meeting. If so, it will be the end of a two-year effort to make the food carts so popular in other American cities more prevalent in New Bedford.
    Under current regulations, food trucks can only operate during the day if they're moving along quickly. But it's important for the trucks to be standing still rather than constantly rolling about the city as ice cream trucks do, Bousquet said.
    "Food trucks can't do that, they need to be stationary to prepare and serve food," he said.
    Under both the proposed ordinance and the current one, food trucks could operate in public parks or in public places throughout the city. According to both ordinances they could not, however, block a public way and they could not be located on grass, only on paved areas. And they could also operate on private property with permission of the property owner.
    The change in the new ordinance is regarding the hours of operation.
    In parks, the trucks could operate between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. while before they could operate anywhere in the city but only between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m.
    Under the proposed ordinance, the trucks could operate between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m. in the working waterfront district bordered by Route 18 on the west, and south of Interstate 195 to Cove Road.
    In the downtown, the food trucks could only operate on Barker's Lane, a narrow street adjacent to the new Custom House Square Park. They could however operate on private property with the owner's permission in the downtown, so long as no traffic is obstructed. The times would be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
    At the city's South End beaches, under the new ordinance, the trucks would be limited to the East Beach public parking lot, with only three trucks allowed at a time, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
    Some city restaurateurs say the new ordinance may present an obstacle for business.
    "I think it would definitely be unfair to me," said Elsa DeFaria, owner of the East Beach area's Clark's Point Creamery, who said her business is seasonal and depends on the weather for enticing a beach crowd to patronize the creamery.
    "If it's parked (at the beach), people will walk up to it," DeFaria said, adding that the creamery puts fliers on windshields parked at the beach to attract customers. "I would definitely not want to see that happen. I don't think any business here would want to see that happen."
    DeFaria contended that one aspect of the food trucks that would be unfair to her is that businesses pay rent, taxes and other expenses that food trucks don't have to.
    But Bousquet said the food vendors also pay their fair share in a different way.
    "A food truck permit is $600, plus they have to get a regular food service permit, so it's pretty close to $900 to get into the business just on the permit side," he said. "It's not like it's cheap. I would say we did what we thought was best for economic development and (any opponents) have had two years now to come say, 'Hey, that's a bad idea,' and no one did."
    The ordinance was originally proposed in 2012 and has gone through a series of meetings where the public was invited, inspiring several rewrites, Bousquet said.
    Bousquet, himself a former restaurateur and food services teacher, said he hasn't heard from a single restaurant owner in opposition to the ordinance, and added that the trucks would be restricted from operating within 300 feet of a brick and mortar establishment.
    The council's Ordinance Committee unanimously recommended a new ordinance to the formal council on April 29. The formal council has passed the first reading and it must pass a second reading to become law.
Reader Reaction