- April 17, 2024
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Whether Ormond Beach will grant food trucks a designated zone to operate in is yet to be determined.
No action on the topic was taken following a brief City Commission and Planning Board joint workshop discussion on Tuesday, Feb. The conversation was first brought up in August 2018, when Ormond Brewing Company sought out a land development code amendment to allow food trucks at breweries in town. The City Commission approved the amendment in October 2018, meaning food trucks were now permitted in two settings: Community-wide special permitted events and breweries.
City staff outlined several possibilities to expand the food truck use the city, including allowing them in the light industrial I-1 zoning district, construction sites and larger employment centers, allowing on private property as an accessory use under certain conditions, and letting private property owners to have food trucks four times a year for 14 days as part of a special event permit.
While most of the City Commission and Planning Board expressed wanting to allow food trucks on a wider scale in the city, there was no consensus as to how to implement this. City Commissioner Troy Kent said he wasn't ready to allow food trucks to operate in a district, and that he believed they should be handles on a case by case basis, like Ormond Brewing Company.
“If there was a restaurant anywhere near that brewery, I would have been a ‘no’ vote on it," said Kent, who voted for the amendment last year. "But there wasn’t.”
He said he couldn't help but think about how food trucks could impact restaurants in the city, something Planning Board member Mike Scudiero also brought up. Scudiero called food trucks "an edible form of itinerant vending," and said Ormond should be careful with that because other cities have struggled with itinerant vending.
“It’s not an easy call because you’ve got constituents that love them," Scudiero said. "I patronize them too, I get it.”
Planning Board member Al Jorczak said economics dictate where a food truck stays and goes in a city, and that's what will have the most impact, regardless of what zones they're permitted in. He asked that the city get feedback from the food truck vendors before making a decision.
City Manager Joyce Shanahan said staff will take their feedback, generate new policies based on that and bring back the food truck issue for another workshop in two to three months.
