The Stuart Town Council discussed a potential mobile food vendor ordinance at its July 15 meeting.
Town Manager Bryce Simmons said he believes creating the ordinance would help capture the mobile food merchants the council’s talked about during previous meetings.
The proposed ordinance would include food vendors set up in trailers, carts, tents, trucks, and other mobile apparatuses.
Under the proposed ordinance, mobile food vendors would pay a $300 annual fee or $25 per event.
“That does not exclude them from paying meals tax as well,” Simmons said.
Noting that some of the mobile units enter and leave the town quickly, Vice-mayor Dave Hoback asked if the town has the horsepower to effectively enforce the proposed ordinance.
“It ultimately comes down to this is a step in the right direction. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that we have not been enforcing it, and I think that is because we don’t have the mechanisms in place to really enforce it as we were going along,” Simmons said.
While the town might not be able to get every single mobile food vendor, Simmons said the proposed ordinance is an attempt to be more fair to Stuart’s brick-and-mortar businesses.
“There’s a disparity that we are putting all of the emphasis and all of the burden on brick-and-mortar buildings, and this is effectively a step in the direction of trying to capture and enforce these mechanisms. The ones that commonly do business in town, I don’t think are going to have a problem with it. I think that, and I do foresee that, there will be some rogue ones that want to set up,” he said.
Simmons said the proposed ordinance also includes provisions and exemptions for churches, nonprofit organizations and fundraisers.
“I think that a lot of these events that we haven’t been capturing are going to fall into that exemption anyway. I think it’s when we look at events that whether it be at the Farmers’ Market” the annual agricultural fair, “or any of those other sort of events that we know that they should be paying their fair share and they’ve just not because we don’t have it in writing to say, ‘You need to do this,’” Simmons said.
“Well, I think it’s definitely a step in the right direction, and at least at this point we’ll have a structure,” Hoback said.
Enforcement actions must be able to reference the statute being enforce, Simmons said.
“Maybe if it’s approved all the way, we can just make sure that it gets to all the event coordinators,” Council member Erica Wade said.
“There is also that mechanism of we’re holding them accountable for bringing in a food truck,” Simmons said.
Council member Rebecca Adcock said she agrees that if passed, the ordinance should be presented to event organizers to ensure they know of it.
“And I did like how in the mobile food ordinance that, if they’re setting up on private property they have to have written permission,” Adcock said.
In other matters, the council:
*Heard an update on the Downtown Revitalization project.
*Heard an update on the Star Theatre.
*Discussed the removal of derelict properties.
*Approved the June 17 meeting minutes.
*Paid the bills.
