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Washington Evening Journal
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Fairfield council discusses food truck ordinance
FAIRFIELD — The Fairfield City Council passed the first reading of an ordinance Monday night to establish where food trucks are allowed on public property.
The ordinance was passed to the second reading on a 6-0 vote with council members Michael Halley, Doug Flournoy, Martha Rasmussen, Paul Gandy, Tom Twohill and Judy Ham voting in favor. Council member Katy Anderson was absent.
Halley introduced the ordinance, saying it had come out of the economic development committee.
He noted that some cities do not allow food trucks on public property at all, since there are risks the city assumes by allowing such activity.
The committee ultimately decided to recommend food trucks be allowed in select parts of the city, namely around the square and along West Briggs Avenue between Petra Park and the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center.
Halley said food vendors would need a city permit and state licenses to operate in this area, but other than that, the city wouldn’t have any other rules limiting the number of days a food truck could operate.
“If you bought a monthly permit, you could be there every single day,” said Halley, who added that food trucks would not be allowed to operate from midnight to 6 a.m.
Halley noted that the new regulations would be more permissive than those the city had in place. For instance, Mike and Nikki Papazoglou have operated a food truck called Rollin’ Cravings for the past year. The city just allowed them to park it on city property one day per week.
Fairfield City Engineer Melanie Carlson said the permit would cost $5 per week, which Halley said was “cheap.”
Fairfield Mayor Connie Boyer asked if there was a limit to how many food trucks would be permitted on city property at any one time. Halley said that, during Fairfield First Fridays, there are often four food trucks around the square, and that there is space for “easily twice that many.”
Carlson added that there are five or six food trucks registered with the city, and they are all parking on private property.
This map of Fairfield’s downtown shows the areas, highlighted in yellow, where food trucks would be allowed to park under a proposed ordinance. Food trucks would be allowed in the parking spaces on all four sides of Central Park, and on West Briggs Avenue between Petra Park and the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center. (Image courtesy of City of Fairfield)
