New Orleans City Councilwoman Stacy Head admits she has been surprised by the extent of the resistance to her effort to liberalize the city's rules for food trucks. It now appears, though, that the councilwoman finally has managed to overcome most of her colleagues' objections. Now all she has to do is overcome the bureaucratic roadblocks. "I thought it...
New Orleans City Councilwoman Stacy Head admits she has been surprised by the extent of the resistance to her effort to liberalize the city's rules for food trucks. It now appears, though, that the councilwoman finally has managed to overcome most of her colleagues' objections. Now all she has to do is overcome the bureaucratic roadblocks.
"I thought it was a no-brainer, but it has been exceedingly difficult," Head said this month. "I didn't think it would take nine months to do just this tiny little section," she added, referring to her desire eventually to rewrite all of the city's rules for "itinerant vendors."
Head on Thursday introduced the third version of her ordinance to increase the number of city permits for food trucks and expand the areas where they can operate. It replaces the version she introduced last month, which the council clerk's office apparently failed to advertise properly in the city's official journal, meaning the council could not vote on it.
Head is expected to bring the latest proposal up for a vote at the council's April 11 or April 18 meeting.
The second version contained a number of changes from the ordinance Head first introduced last fall, and her latest proposal makes a few more concessions designed to answer objections from other council members and the Louisiana Restaurant Association.
It would reduce the number of new one-year permits for food trucks from 100 to 75. It also would require operators to have at least $500,000 worth of commercial general liability insurance and to prove they have access to a public or commercial restroom within 300 feet of any location where they operating.
Rachel Billow, president of the New Orleans Food Truck Coalition, told a council committee this month that the restroom requirement would make it harder for food trucks to serve local "food deserts," or areas -- many of them still trying to recover from Hurricane Katrina -- that have few permanent restaurants or grocery stores. But Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell said adding the requirement was important to her and her constituents.
Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson said she wanted more assurance that the state Department of Health and Hospitals has no objections to more food trucks and is ready to enforce state health regulations for them. Head said she had been assured privately that state health officials have no concerns about the trucks but that they were reluctant to speak publicly for fear of getting caught up in a political controversy.
Clarkson eventually appeared to accept Head's and Billow's assurances that the trucks will be properly inspected and regulated. But she said she still was not satisfied with the size of the proposed buffer zone around brick-and-mortar restaurants. At present, food trucks must keep at least 600 feet away from such restaurants. Head originally proposed reducing that distance to 50 feet but then agreed to make it 100 feet, measured from any part of the restaurant, not just the front door.
Clarkson said she thought 100 feet was not enough but wasn't sure what figure she wanted. She finally said she would accept whatever distance the rest of the council decided on.
Billow argued against any distance requirement, saying that courts have found such exclusion zones in other cities to be unconstitutional, but Clarkson warned her against pursuing that line of argument. "You don't want to go there with me," she said, citing her decades as a real estate agent and devotion to private property rights.
The 75 new food-truck permits Head's ordinance would authorize would be valid only during a one-year pilot program, with no guarantee they would be extended beyond then. Sanjay Kharod, executive director of the New Orleans Food & Farm Network, warned that provision could limit the measure's effectiveness. Even though many people have indicated a desire to start new food trucks in New Orleans, it is questionable how many will be willing or able to spend as much as $20,000 or $30,000 on a business that could be shut down after one year, Kharod said.
Head replied that she was trying to craft an ordinance that could win council passage and so was ready to accommodate a lot of objections and restrictions in order to secure more votes.
Thus, the ordinance would prohibit food trucks in the entire French Quarter and the section of the Central Business District bounded by Howard Avenue, Rampart Street, Iberville Street and the river. The three-block-long Frenchmen Street entertainment district would also be excluded.
Food trucks could set up shop in one spot for up to four hours, compared with just 45 minutes at present, but they would be excluded from all residential areas.