PORTLAND, Maine — The long simmering question of whether food trucks — traveling vendors who serve meals out of parked trucks — should be allowed in Portland reached the City Council on Monday night.
After four months of work by an issue-specific city task force and a round of review and recommendations by the planning board, a slate of ordinance changes pertaining to the food trucks was given first reading by the council Monday. As a first reading, there was no discussion of the food trucks during the meeting. A second reading and vote is scheduled to take place on July 16.
The proposed ordinance changes came more than two weeks after the city played host to contestants in Food Network’s high-profile reality show “The Great Food Truck Race,” which filmed an episode in Portland in mid-June.
The task force proposal on the table would create fees for the motorized vendors and restrict where in the city they can sell food. The plan would allow food trucks, but would force them to stay at least 65 feet from another vendor or restaurant if set up on the peninsula — defined as south of Interstate 295 — and 200 feet from competitors off the peninsula.
The strategy calls for $500 city fees for food trucks operating during the day and $200 for food trucks open overnight — between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
The plan would also open up the city’s Industrial and Recreation/Open Space, or ROS, zones to street vendors, including food trucks.
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Portland City Council to consider allowing food trucks, with fees and location restrictions”
and you guys wonder why there’s no business in maine.
How about making it EASIER to open or operate a business for a change?
fees? taxes? certain places?
real nice, keep it up, i’m sure lots of people want to do business under the iron boot of portland.
Well put. So long as we have city officials making these decisions and forcing business NOT to open, we will never have a decent economy in this state. Bangor has done the same wanting so much money for vendors near the waterfront that there is no way they could come close to making a profit. Of course that is because they dont want the Sea Dog where they all congregate to lose any business either. So much for having the people’s interests
Regulating, but allowing…smarts move, Portland City Council.
These trucks provide variety of food choices to residents and visitors, give an “incubator” effect for future restaurant workers/owners, provide meals in far-flung areas away from traditional restaurants (parks in summer, workers at lunchtime).
On the other side, you as a customer want to know that the food is handled safely, the pollution is minimized, as is the litter, and that the trucks do not add to congestion or safety/traffic issues.
Other “land-based” business pay enough in taxes to cover the costs of providing roads and sidewalks, police protection, and all the other services that R.E. taxes provide. Shouldn’t these truck-based businesses pay their share? Trust me, if you owned a restaurant–and all the costs that involved–and had a truck pull up and steal your customers, YOU would want some regulation too.
$500 a year fee, that is less than $2 a day. Know how much a good truck/menu can sell in a day? Try $500.
Allow, but regulate. What is wrong with that?