Washington considering major food truck ordinance changes

WASHINGTON — Members of the Washington City Council weighed changes to municipal rules regulating food trucks at a regular meeting last week.

The proposed changes would overhaul Chapter 130 of the city code, requiring food trucks to work with annual fire inspections, 2-day notices to the city before setting up, a penalty for non-compliance, and a handful of other new regulations. Officials said most of the new rules wouldn’t apply to mobile vendors at the city’s farmers market or special events approved by the council for exemptions.

City Clerk Sally Hart said the current system was inefficient and unclear at times.

“The city has a $10 per day policy for food trucks operating on public property and a peddler’s license for those operating on private property,” which has a $2 application and additional fee of $3 per day, $15 per week or $50 per month, according to a memo to the council. “The changes would streamline the process.”

The proposals are modeled from similar regulations in other cities close to Washington’s size, according to Hart.

“We have food trucks both on private property and public property, and they don’t have to follow the same rules, it’s a little tough to determine which license they need,” she said. “We have some who get a daily license, and others who get a monthlong license. We also don’t have a fire inspection process, so that was requested by the fire department.”

Mayor Jaron Rosien said the city had time to hear out comments on the changes. The public hearing process for an ordinance change requires three readings at different council meetings, meaning the proposals would be open for debate for around month and a half after the first reading.

“There’s time to get input, I think, from other food vendors, for any questions or concerns that they have,” Rosien said.

Still, the city did not vote on a first reading at its meeting on Jan. 3. Council Member Elaine Moore said she wanted to give vendors more time to weigh in before taking action.

“I just would like to look at this a little bit more,” she said. “We haven’t had any feedback from anybody that this effects … so I’m not sure I’m ready to vote this first reading just yet. I do like what I have seen, but there’s a couple of things that I have questions (about.)”

Notably absent from the proposed changes are new fees for food trucks. Hart said those rates were determined by resolutions from the city, not its code of ordinances. That doesn’t rule out the possibility of reworked fees alongside the ordinance, however, as Hart said the city could change amounts as the council sees fit in the future.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com