Free Daily Headlines

Business

Set your text size: A A A

Planners rewrite food truck rules

A food truck that was out of compliance with city rules may result in a rewrite of Hendersonville’s zoning code.

The Planning Board last week recommended that the City Council add mobile food vendors as a permitted use in five commercial zones in the city — highway mixed use, central mixed use, C-3 highway business, C-2 secondary business and I-1 industrial. Property owner Mark Searcy applied for a permit for a food truck to operate on his vacant lot at 2745 Chimney Rock Road. City planners then opted to create a new zoning category different from restaurants and special event food vendors.
Using model food truck rules from Charlotte, city planners presented the proposed changes to the advisory board last week. Planning Board members made some minor tweaks before sending the changes on to the City Council, which takes them up on April 5.
The ordinance would require food vendors to obtain a zoning compliance permit, valid for one year and renewable. There would be no limit on the number of food trucks on a parcel as long as they were 20 feet from one another and complied with setback rules. The rules prohibit operators to dump waste, grease or wastewater into the city sewer system or stormwater drains. The food trucks would have to be at least 500 feet from any restaurant and 100 feet from a house or residential zone. They could have one wall sign no larger than 32 square feet plus an A-frame sign of 8 square feet. They may not encroach on any street, sidewalk or right of way. They could operate from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.