Concerns about how new rules would or would not restrict food trucks’ ability to set up near neighborhoods led the Sarasota County Commission to punt on a decision to loosen those rules Monday.
Now county attorneys and planners will revisit the proposed changes — again — to determine whether some variation of a minimum distance requirement between food trucks and nearby homes would put commissioners’ minds at ease. The commission will discuss that possibility again on Nov. 8.
Chris Jett, founder of the SRQ Food Truck Alliance, has worked on the proposed changes for months (years, really) and was, uh, not happy with the decision.
He walked out after the decision and damn near exploded, saying he and his wife will have to ditch their popular Baja Boys Grill truck.
“We’ll have to sell Baja Boys. Without the free roaming ability, we just can’t do it.
“We’re fucked. And you can fucking quote that in the fucking paper. We’re fucking fucked.”
After a brief stroll around the building, a calmer Jett said he will continue to work on the rules with the county, but that any vote that eliminates trucks’ ability to roam freely in certain zones will kill the local food truck scene.
Jett and food truck owners have worked with zoning officials to change the county’s arguably unconstitutionally restrictive food trucks rules since the beginning of the year, though the fight goes back five years more.
The proposed rules have changed repeatedly over the course of the summer, but in August, the Planning Commission (months after punting the issue itself) recommended relaxing the proposal even more in favor of one general permit that would allow trucks to set up throughout commercial and industrial zones in unincorporated areas.
But that set up would not give county officials a particular way to regulate how close or far food trucks would be allowed to set up to residential homes, several commissioners suggested.
Commissioners Charles Hines and Christine Robinson recalled a particularly problematic application for a food truck in Englewood that caused problems with nearby residents.
More particular regulations to “protect residents” must be included before they will support the measure.
“The residential issue is the biggest barrier right now,” Robinson said. “We agree with 97 percent of this issue, it’s just the residential protection we’re struggling with.”