Food Truck Setback: What Can Be Done?

This statement came from Lil Cheezers - Louisville Street Food's Facebook page: "To our fans: I am sorry but at this time we cannot operate in the Louisville area. There are many processes we have to go through before we can get inspected by the Health Department and then we have to talk to Inspections, Permits and Licenses. There are many rules and regulations that make food trucks impossible, now you know why you hardly ever see them around here."

Surely there is something the food community can do to make it possible for food trucks to function and add to the spirit of the city.

Agreed. Here is the link to their story: http://www.facebook.com/#!/permalink.ph ... 8095749360

I wrote a column about this last month. The regulations are so restrictive, it makes it impossible for a street food truck to operate. http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/my-lo ... ustry-wish

Still, they bought and renovated a truck, jumped through all the hoops they were aware of, had to pay a master plumber to draw a diagram of their plumbing system, had a great debut weekend, and now they cannot operate in Louisville because of the fees and restrictions.

We have to do something! Call your councilperson. If you know anyone on the council personally, or are involved in the Metro Management District, please - let's organize!

[Robin Garr]

We have to do something! Call your councilperson. If you know anyone on the council personally, or are involved in the Metro Management District, please - let's organize!

Maybe we should put together a small but influential delegation and ask for a meeting with Greg Fischer.

I'm in!

(although I'm neither small, nor influential)....

Thank you everyone for showing the concern. We are not going to quit. I knew going in there would be a bit of a fight to get this done and we are digging in and fighting.

We have received an awesome response from all this local business owners are offering every contact and resource they have, even some neighbors of the Mayor. I have a feeling he will start hearing our name a few times a day.

There are ways to make this happen, there is a happy medium between operational policy and regulations. I understand that you cant have everyone out doing something like this because it will get cluttered but surely there are ways to regulate and control the use of food trucks, permit them properly and allow them to operate independantly on the honor system. Break a rule, lose a permit. Simple.

Anyway thanks to you all for doing whatever you can to help, we are getting out of the house for a bit. I had to turn down a convention of 1000 tomorrow for lunch. 1000 for lunch on a Monday... are you kidding me. Saying no to that was devastating and demoralizing. Opportunities like that dont come often and we sure could use the bill money.

Thanks again all. I appreciate it more than you know.

Is the mobile food vendor code on the interwebs? I couldn't find it. And frankly I deal with a lot of zoning stuff, so IPL (actually called Codes and Regulations now) isn't a whole lot different. Anyway, can you point me at exactly what you're reading?

Copied from Facebook:

Leah this is Ordinance # 57, series 2009. An ordinance amending Louisville Metro Code of Ordinances (LMCO) Chapter 115 "Regulations Governing Specific Businesses" relating to vendors, peddlers and solicitors.

I'm not trying to be argumentative, nor do I know anything about the regulations/rules affecting food trucks, but after spending on a few years on this forum I am astounded by the number of business people and entrepreneurs who commit time and capital to a project without fully researching the applicable rules...again, I'm not suggesting these rules are appropriate or not, merely hoping every business person does their homework or spends a few $$ to hire someone to do it for them.
Bill

Actually, Matt and Juanita did tons of research, called multiple times, went down to the Health Department in person...and got lots of wobbly answers and misleading information. That's why we need to organize a push to make this whole process more clear-cut.

As someone who has dealt with the arcane vagaries of zoning code for a number of years, I can only tell you that researching the Food Code at the Health Dept is but one step. Zoning Code, Metro Code of Ordinances are worlds unto themselves. And there is little to no effort to coordinates such codes. They really do seem to be produced in a vacuum by each individual entity.

I just read the applicable code of Ordinances (it is online) and discovered that the license is by vehicle, not per location, so that should help a bit. There are all sorts of other ridiculous regulations about where a truck can be located,however.

I just read the Fb original post again which makes it sound like the truck is not licensed by the HD. That can't be right.

The fella that owns Holy Smokes Pitmaster Q is encountering the same issues with his mobile smoker rig. As I understand it now, he's working in Jeffersonville and outside Jefferson County.

http://www.facebook.com/bbqcowboy

Full carry-out container of pulled pork BBQ and a side for $5. Pretty good deal. I don't get it very often because he's usually in Jeff only during the lunch hours while I'm over yonder on the south side of the river. This week, he's on vacation. But he posts his "whereabouts" on his Facebook page.

I am ready to organize and help in any way I can. Much like Marsha, I am neither small, nor influential, but I am willing to help. This is nonsense!

I wonder if for some reason his truck is treated differently than the food trailers we have operating around town? It doesn't seem like there should be much difference other than the type of license plate they have. Also what about all of the food trucks and trailers that come into town for Derby Festival Chow Wagons? It kind of seems like there are two sets of rules people get to play by.