Palm Coast Moves to Permit Food Trucks Beyond Town Center, Ending Long-Standing Ban

Food trucks looking to do business in Palm Coast–legally–may just about start their engines as the City Council this morning unanimously approved, on first reading, an ordinance lifting what until now have been prohibitive restrictions on “Mobile Food Dispensing Vehicles,” as government lingo likes to call rolling bistros. 

“As this stands, I’m pleased with this,” said Sheila Hines, who’s been operating a food truck–Sheila’s Funnel Cakes–for 16 years. “I believe this will serve all of us.” 

She estimates there are between 22 and 25 food truck “vehicles,” as she called them, in the city. She had one request for the city: to expand the new allowance for commercial vehicles in residential driveways to include food trucks, “because it’s a small amount of people here,” she said, before backhanding the council: “Palm Coast has never been a friend of small business, so I appreciate you guys taking this up.” 

Another resident concerned about the potential fading away of clubs like the Elks, the VFW and others for lack of membership said food trucks could help bolster a younger membership there. 

The state licenses, regulates and inspects food trucks. Local governments may not license trucks nor inspect them, though a local government may issue business tax receipts. When Palm Coast does so, it ensures that the business is properly licensed by the state, thus giving the city at least a measure of oversight. The city’s Code Enforcement Department will also have authority to regulate food trucks’ compliance with city regulations, including illegal discharges.

State law requires local governments to allow mobile food trucks in some capacity. Palm Coast has been meeting that requirement by hosting Food Truck Tuesday once a month since 2013 in Town Center.

That one day a month and certain special events aside, food truck operators find what has otherwise been a ban on food trucks too restrictive. Food trucks have been setting up shop in parking lots, on private property and at certain events without permitting. (Even on private property, food trucks may not operate without a city permit under current regulations.) 

The City Council now agrees that its rules are unrealistically restrictive. The council in October directed the administration to draft an ordinance defining new, more permissive parameters for food truck operations. 

There will be two types of food truck operations: “principal use” and “accessory use.” Principal use is when a parcel is devoted principally to a food truck operation, for one or many food trucks on a permanent basis. Accessory use would be the permitting of one or more food trucks on an incidental basis, as an “accessory” to an event or to a business. Walmart, for example, has had food trucks in its parking lot. 

Principal-use food truck operations would not be allowed on lots smaller than 20,000 square feet, providing 500-square-foot minimum to each food truck and 10 feet between food trucks. They would have to provide two permanent parking spaces per truck, plus an additional parking space for each 75 square feet of dining area, and 10 to 30 seats per truck. 

In principal-use operations, trucks would be allowed to operate 20 hours out of 24 (closing between 2 and 6 a.m.). Principal-use applications would require full site plan approval by the city, must abide by various land use regulations, and must provide certain minimum amenities, including seating, restrooms, garbage disposal and parking. All those amenities would have to be permanent.  Seating may be indoor or outdoor, but if outdoor, it must comply with lighting requirements. The sites may have their own recreational areas, but those would have to be fenced in and comply with city regulations. The fencing requirement, initially too vague for council members, will be tied to the city’s Land Development Code. The trucks would not have to be moved during off hours. 

Accessory operations would not have as many requirements–no extra parking, no restrooms, no seating. But the 20,000 square foot lot size would still apply. The trucks would not remain in that spot in off hours (unless they’re associated with a restaurant), and would have to abide by whatever business hours apply at the business on whose parking lot they operate. “So if we have a site that’s developed as a big box store that wants to have a mobile mobile food dispensing vehicle, and a big box store closes at 10 p.m.,” Senior Planner Michael Hanson said, “that would require the mobile food dispensing vehicle to cease operations at the time of closing” of the store. 

Council member Theresa Pontieri had a problem with that. “If a business says, Hey, I don’t mind if you sell coffee out of your food truck at 6 a.m. even though I don’t open until 9 a.m., shouldn’t that be between them?” she said. “And I don’t think that’s really something that the government should dictate.” Other council members agreed. The council is leaving it to the administration to refine that part of the ordinance, either by eliminating the restriction on hours or by making provisions for waivers. 

All food trucks would have to comply with fire safety, noise, lighting and discharge rules, and none would be allowed to have amplified music. A provision banning food trucks from vacant lots was excised, since food trucks could theoretically operate on a vacant lot as long as they fulfill all the required steps, and if that lot’s zoning accommodates food trucks. As for food trucks operating on boats, as was once the case in Flagler County, Hanson said it would not meet the state’s definition of a mobile food truck. But that didn’t resolve the matter: could a floating food operation fly? The council didn’t answer the question. 

“I know this was a heavy lift, so thank you to staff,” Pontieri said, “thank you to all of our food truck operators who reached out to us to provide feedback, who engaged in this process, because this was the first time for us, so we couldn’t have done it without all of your efforts.”

Second and final reading is scheduled for Feb. 3. No word on whether cleverer food truck operators will set up shop at City Hall’s parking lot that evening.

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