food-truck
By David Walsh

PHOTO: The annual Eat the Street festival at Franklin’s Bicentennial Park features a multitude of food trucks. They can also be seen in various other locations throughout the city. / File photo by John McBryde

By JOHN McBRYDE

Franklin aldermen will likely give final approval Tuesday night to a proposed ordinance that affects how the city of Franklin will govern the ever-growing industry of food trucks in the area.

Aldermen voted 7-1 at the June 11 meeting of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to approve the amended ordinance, which is basically an update to Title 9, Chapter 14, of the city of Franklin Municipal Code titled Peddlers and Solicitors. The new version more specifically regulates the increasingly popular mobile food vending industry.

Tuesday’s board meeting begins at 7 p.m.

Franklin City Administrator Vernon Gerth said he spent about a year getting input from various stakeholders that included not only mobile food vendors, but also business owners with brick and mortar locations. He and the city staff also heard from residents, city leaders and others in the community.

Because of the increased popularity of food trucks, Franklin has received a growing number of requests from such vendors to operate within the city limits.

“City staff has concluded mobile food vendors, when carefully incorporated into the fabric of a community, increases the vitality of public and private spaces, increases the number of local culinary options, offers an alternative for dining that otherwise require driving, and fosters opportunities for local entrepreneurship,” Gerth wrote in the resolution.

Part of staff’s research included looking at how other communities handled regulation of food trucks, specifically considering the city of Brentwood and Williamson County.

Ordinance highlights include:

  • Mobile food vehicles would be allowed to operate in office, commercial, industrial, mixed-use and civic and institutional zoned districts and in residentially zoned districts under certain conditions.
  • The proposed ordinance does not apply to caterers which may include a mobile food vehicle(s) serving private parties and that are not making individual sales to the public.
  • A $100 permit is required annually for mobile food vehicles that are expected to be “in-operation.”  “In-operation” means mobile food vehicles that are expected to leave a site when not setting up, in operation (serving), or closing.  There is an exception from the “in-operation” requirement when the mobile food vehicle is either participating in a city-approved special event or when located on a private property that has a valid location-specific mobile food permit.
  • A location-specific mobile food vending permit allows for one mobile food vehicle to remain on a property over-night, for an indefinite duration even when not open for business.  No permanent connections to water, sanitary sewer, natural gas or electric are allowed and all temporary signs, steps, chairs, etc. will need to be stored out of site when not open.
  • A property with a valid location-specific mobile food vending permit may have multiple mobile food vehicles “in-operation” but only one can remain staged throughout the night.
  • Since the city of Franklin has historically been proactive in its management of the floodplain and floodway, this ordinance does not allow for location-specific permits to be issued to property owners whose property is located within the floodplain or floodway.  This requirement does not restrict, in any way, mobile food vehicles “in-operation” from operating on private property located within the floodplain or floodway.  City staff determined that allowing mobile food vehicles or other uses in the floodplain and floodway that are not flood-proofed and unattended would be contrary to the city’s current floodplain and floodway management policies.

Tuesday night’s vote is the second and final for this resolution. Alderman Margaret Martin, 4th Ward, was the only nay vote at the previous board meeting.