P&Z to (briefly) consider changes allowing for more food trucks in Kyle

First of all, it’s important here to distinguish between what the City calls a "mobile food vendor" and a "temporary food vendor." Here’s the distinction as best as I understand it. A mobile food vendor is someone who dispenses food from a food truck whose mobility is self-contained. In other words, after dishing out hot lunches or cold sandwiches, a mobile food vendor can climb into the driver’s seat of his food truck, put the key into the ignition a drive off. A "temporary food vendor," on the other hand, has to connect the food truck to another vehicle in order to drive it off the lot.

Got it?

The reason I bring all this up is because the Planning & Zoning Commission is scheduled to consider ordinance changes at its 6:30 p.m. Tuesday specially called meeting that would provide different rules for mobile food vendors and temporary food vendors who wish to do business in Kyle. For instance, for some reason I don’t quite understand, a mobile food vendor would only be allowed to remain in one location for an hour before he or she must relocate. A temporary food vendor can remain in the same place for a year. Go figure.

The proposed ordinance contains no restrictions whatsoever on where a mobile food vendor may dispense its goodies. Temporary food vendors, however, are restricted to those areas of the city zoned for retail services and entertainment as well as the Central Business District. In addition, the temporary food vendor must be on "private property where an existing, permanent business operates in a building with a Certificate of Occupancy at all times while the temporary food vendor occupies the property." That, to me, means if this ordinance passes P&Z and later the City Council, I would expect to see a lot more food trucks in the Target, H-E-B, Wal-Mart, Lowe’s and Home Depot shopping areas, particularly since the proposed ordinance also states a temporary food vendor can’t be located "closer than 50 feet from thoroughfares." There’s another provision in the proposal that prohibits one temporary food vendor from being any closer than 150 feet from another temporary food vendor and these lots will give the vendors room to spread out. They must also be at least 150 feet from the nearest residence and these lots provide that buffer as well. (These last two rules don’t apply for temporary food vendors located in areas zoned CBD-2.)

You can take your (leashed) dog with you while getting food from a temporary food vendor but there’s no mention of whether dogs are allowed anywhere in the vicinity of a mobile food vendor.

P&Z, of course, is not the final arbiter on this ordinance. It will only make its recommendation to the City Council on whether it should be passed. A public hearing is scheduled in connection with the discussion of this item, but the P&Z doesn’t appear to be expecting too much citizen input on the subject. The special called meeting during which this as well as other items will be debated is scheduled for all of 15 minutes to be followed by a workshop on other proposed ordinance changes scheduled to begin at 6:45.