The ordinances requested the council to remove current titles in the Bloomington Municipal Code and add regulations for solicitors, mobile food vendors and pushcarts.
The new regulations would restrict where solicitors, food trucks and pushcarts can operate.
Assistant City Attorney Patty Mulvihill said this ordinance comes after 18 months of discussion with the Department of Economic and Sustainable Development and business owners. Mulvihill said the new revisions to the Bloomington Municipal Code was difficult to make pleasing to both businesses and the city.
“We had no hope in making one group or person unhappy,” ?Mulvihill said.
The old ordinance requires the businesses to have merchant and temporary operating permits that took too much time and caused businesses to pay multiple fines to receive the permits, Mulvihill said.
According to the new regulations, no more than four food trucks and 12 pushcarts would be allowed on the Courthouse square. No more than five food trucks and 10 pushcarts could be located between the Courthouse square and the Sample Gates.
Mobile food vendors would also be restricted to operating in commercial zones and would have to be located at least 50 feet away from the facade of a building where food and beverages are sold.
Solicitors cannot operate from dusk to 8 a.m. Food trucks and pushcarts cannot operate between 4 a.m. and 7:30 a.m.
Businesses are also required to abide by the city’s noise ordinance. Many questions from the council regarded complaints about businesses that may violate it by playing music or running a generator. They are also required to provide trash and recycling receptacles.
Solicitors, food trucks and pushcarts would also be required to register as businesses with the Indiana Secretary of State and provide an employer identification number.
The ordinance also increases penalty fines. For operating without a license, businesses could be charged between $2,500 and $7,500, depending on the number of offenses. Businesses that are in noncompliance with the ordinance would be fined between $250 and $1,000.
Chad Sutor, co-owner for the Big Cheeze food truck, said while he is glad the ordinance is being updated, he is concerned about the long-term effects of the ordinance.
“Our biggest issue that we have is the responsibility of this ordinance to care more on the health and the well-being of the community and not the protection of the businesses from one another,” he said.
Sutor said his and other businesses that are part of Btown Street Food started a petition this morning for “food truck freedom” in Bloomington, which has received 289 signatures as of Wednesday’s meeting.
This evening’s meeting was a discussion of the proposed regulations. The regulations will be read and discussed again at a later meeting.
