The New Orleans City Council took no action Thursday on Mayor Mitch Landrieu's veto this week of a recently passed ordinance loosening city restrictions on food trucks. It is scheduled to vote at its next meeting, May 16, on whether to override the veto. In the event the veto stands, however, Councilwoman Stacy Head, chief sponsor of the ordinance,...
The New Orleans City Council took no action Thursday on Mayor Mitch Landrieu's veto this week of a recently passed ordinance loosening city restrictions on food trucks. It is scheduled to vote at its next meeting, May 16, on whether to override the veto. In the event the veto stands, however, Councilwoman Stacy Head, chief sponsor of the ordinance, introduced a backup measure Thursday.
The new measure, which the council also could vote on May 16, would increase the number of authorized permits for all mobile food vendors, including but not limited to food trucks, from the present limit of 100 to 175.
The ordinance the council passed April 18 on a 6-1 vote also would have authorized 75 new permits, but only for full-fledged food trucks, not for vendors selling other items such as ice cream, fruits and vegetables, Lucky Dogs or Roman candy. Those new permits would have been limited to one year. The new ordinance sets no time limit on the 75 additional permits.
Head's new measure would not make any of the other changes contained in the April 18 ordinance, such as reducing the size of a prohibited buffer zone around regular restaurants, allowing food trucks to operate at one spot for as long as four hours, expanding the part of the Central Business District where they may operate, and requiring them to have access to nearby restrooms.
Landrieu's veto message this week did not make clear what his objections were to the ordinance. But he cited concerns that Head herself and other food truck proponents raised during debate on the measure that some provisions -- notably a 200-foot buffer zone around brick-and-mortar restaurants -- might be unconstitutional. The law now in place sets a 600-foot buffer zone.
Head released a statement Thursday night saying she was "disappointed" by the mayor's veto and does not agree with its "rationale." But she said she will "await his suggested improvements as he promised he would provide in his veto statement." Citing the "practical difficulties of a veto override," she said she introduced the new ordinance "in a pragmatic effort to move forward."