It’s the old adage in real estate: “location, location, location.” With the prospects of new ordinance regulating food trucks up for debate, the location of the city’s food trucks may be in jeopardy.
The City Council will continue to consider a buffer for food trucks that would require them to be at least 75 feet away from any bar or restaurant. Though it seems the council supports the continuation of the current 50-foot buffer, the new ordinance would change where that buffer is measured.
Under Bloomington’s current business code, a food truck’s parking spot must be at least 50 feet away from the entrance to a restaurant or bar. Under the new proposed ordinance, the 50-foot buffer zone would be measured from the outdoor seating area — not the entrance.
“With this new ordinance, if it were to go through the way it is right now, our normal spot — the spot we normally park on right outside Kilroy’s — would be illegal,” said Chad Sutor, co-owner of the Big Cheeze truck.
Sutor said 60 percent of his sales come from the late night hours 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. when students are leaving the bars. If passed, the ordinance would jeopardize his and other food trucks’ spots on Kirkwood Avenue.
According to maps drawn by the city, most of East Kirkwood, home to bars and restaurants such as Kilroy’s Bar and Grill, Nick’s English Hut and Village Deli would become off-limits to food trucks.
The ordinance was orginally brought before the City Council in December, but Bloomington City Council member Stephen Volan said he and his colleagues wanted to wait and iron out some of the details of it.
For certain establishments, the issue of food trucks stems from two main issues: noise from their generators and parking room.
“It also takes up parking spots for potential customers,” said Susan Bright, co-owner of Nick’s English Hut. “If we let every food truck park on Kirkwood, the brick-and-mortar places don’t have parking for their patrons.”
Though for the businesses on Kirkwood, parking is not the only complaint. According to Volan, who has spoken with restaurant and food truck owners, patrons, and proprietors alike have complained about the noise from the food trucks.
“The generators are loud, so it doesn’t let our patrons who are sitting outside to hear themselves talk, so we’re losing our outside business,” Bright said.
Bright said she has met with several of the food truck owners, but she is frustrated because she believes some of them do not follow city regulations, specifically the 50-foot buffer zone.
Sutor said current food truck regulations are confusing and hard to follow, and he welcomes a new ordinance — just one that does not restrict his business.
“We want an ordinance to be passed,” Sutor said. “We want there to be a regulation because the regulations that are in place now are super vague ... it’s really hard to enforce the rules that are in ?place now.”
If passed, the new ordinance would make the 50-foot buffer zone for food trucks enforceable whether the business nearby was open or closed, meaning most of Kirkwood would be off-limits for most food trucks.
