Food Trucks Legal in Raleigh Starting on October 1st
After a long winded battle with food trucks over the past year, the Raleigh City Council passed the latest food truck ordinance at Today's council meeting. The vote was 6-2 with Thomas Crowder and John Odom the only two voting the ordinance down.
That said don't expect to see food trucks on every corner, as we laid out last week, food trucks will have to create a partnership with local businesses who will also have to get a permit for them to operate on their private property. On a good note, the 1am curfew did not fly and food trucks will be able to operate until 3am. The trucks are also still required to be 100 feet from any restaurant and 50 feet from any food vending cart.
Under the new guidelines, food trucks will be allowed to operate from 6 a.m. to 3 a.m. daily. However food trucks that are located within 150 feet of the property line of a single-family home or a duplex will be limited to operating from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
Although the rules are very tight on the trucks, hopefully we'll see them more often in the Raleigh area from now on.
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ford
09/06 03:23 PM
Finally!
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GoRaleigh
09/06 03:30 PM
I would love to see some of these folks set up within walking distance from Fayetteville St. for lunch during the week. Currently the options are very limited but this would be a great way to introduce some variety!
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Ken
09/06 03:37 PM
The rules are not the best but it’s a good starting point. I hope to see some trucks at Big Boss next time I go.
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Rob E.
09/06 03:42 PM
Laws still seem too restrictive, but it is much better to have something on the books then to keep dragging it out. Interesting that the changed time back to 3am to keep parity with hot dog vendors but kept the distance that is 3 times the hot dog vendor distance and allows those vendors to operate in public spaces.
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klute
09/06 03:52 PM
I just don’t get why established restaurants are so fearful of nearby food trucks. How many people on their way to a nice unhurried dinner at, I dunno, Dos Taquitos or Cafe Luna or the Oxford or Second Empire—or wherever downtown—then see a food truck out front and change their minds? “Hey, honey, let’s instead eat messy tacos or melty cheesy pizza on paper plates next to this bus stop and the lady talking to herself. She says she needs a quarter; do you have one?” Really. Welcome food trucks!
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Van Alston
09/06 04:05 PM
It sure seems like a compromise that both sides can live with. I like the fact that the city will revisit the issue after six months to iron out any remaining issues.
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wrinkleintherug
09/06 04:12 PM
sooooo,
i am guessing that last week’s headline on this site stating “raleigh officially runs its own food trucks out of town” was:
a) premature
b) not “official”
c) sensationalist
d) all of the abovenice “reporting”, carnac.
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Joe
09/06 04:36 PM
Yay. Can Jedediah now shut up about stupid food trucks? Jesus! This blog is getting increasingly tedious and less useful by the day.
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Matt
09/06 04:46 PM
C! I vote for Sensationalism.
The story sounded like it was written by a spoiled 10 year old screaming at Walmart because mommy wouldn’t buy the toy they wanted. This is an adult conversation, a debate was necessary and fair restrictions had to be put in place… you don’t want to end up like Durham do you?
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Collins
09/06 05:31 PM
I’m going to go with:
e) Jedidiah rolled out his “jump to conclusions mat” before having all his facts straight.
I also don’t disagree w/ the 150 ft requirement. I’m glad Raleigh is taking a careful approach to food trucks to allow them to operate but not piss off/hurt existing brick and mortar businesses.
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JK
09/06 07:06 PM
Sorry you’re forced to read every post about food trucks on a blog you find ‘tedious’, Joe! Must be hard for you.
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jack
09/06 07:18 PM
So I wonder if Klausie’s will give up setting up at Fullsteam on busy Friday / Saturday Nights now that he can stay in Raleigh? I know he has complained about gas costs and the wear and tear from driving his truck to Durham, but Fullsteam is a pretty plum location. Should be interesting to see how folks respond to this new found Freedom.
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Phillo
09/06 07:36 PM
Does this mean we don’t get to punish food service employees at a few downtown restaurants?
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WiseOne
09/06 08:11 PM
Well, klute I don’t think the established brick-n-mortar venues fear the food trucks, they feel their business is given a unfair advantage in the market place. For example a required grease trap plus installation is a about the cost (and size sometimes) of one of theses trucks. The slanting of the overhead cost field can be quite steep. (And anyways where are these trucks dumping their grease Raleigh?)
And yes, let’s hope this debate evaporates—it is a bit tiresome. Maybe we can start the next wave about food stands.
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smitty
09/06 08:20 PM
The whole thing just makes me hungry.
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Van Alston
09/06 08:25 PM
As a bricks and mortar owner AND a lover of food trucks the framing of the debate is what I found so tiresome. WiseOne hit on it above. I got really tired of hearing that “all the food trucks want is to be able to compete evenly” and “bricks and mortar restaurants are trying to over-regulate” because they are scared of competition. I would love to be able to open up a place and do exactly as I please with it, yet I am saddled by myriad regulations that food trucks don’t have to meet. Now food trucks have a few hoops to jump through that I don’t encounter.
This seems like a decent compromise and came after a thorough examination of BOTH sides of the argument. This is the kind of careful consideration that we should be encouraging from our council. The fact that both sides are happy yet feeling they should have gotten a little bit more means that it worked out pretty well.
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Big Al
09/06 09:03 PM
Hope to see them all at Hopscotch
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rob
09/06 09:20 PM
if it took the city council over a year to agree on this silly issue imagine how long it would take those fools to approve a skyscraper… o thats right they almost never do that either…
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Jess
09/07 01:50 AM
and because i’m a nerd…and used to work for Wake County…FOOD TRUCKS: don’t forget to set up your 1% prepared food and beverage tax account with Wake County Revenue…or they’ll come getcha!
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Synaesthesiac
09/07 03:50 AM
A year or so of consideration is not so bad. A lot of us have been conditioned to expect things to happen very quickly. In the world of business and media, things happen very quickly and are often filled with volatility and risk. The growth of a city is and should be a slow and steady process. It is important that someone is present to give counterarguments (even if playing devil’s advocate) and explore issues in their entirety. Our tax dollars are too important to go making risky decisions that could have a major impact on residents and established businesses. I believe in a liberal minded government, but I don’t think liberal should be associated with rash and risky decision making. Everything that has happened here has been exemplary. It involved several factions within the community and the resolution seems fair. The sensationalism of this blog is in line and perhaps lessened than the sensationalism we get from major media. It draws attention to the cause, and in this case, has been a fabulous marketing opportunity for the new mobile dining industry. So now that we’re paying attention, what can we accomplish next year?
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LoneVoice
09/07 06:12 AM
Now that Raleigh has food trucks, the argument that “Raleigh doesn’t want to be a progressive city” or “If Raleigh wants to be a progressive city, it must do _____” can finally stop.
One will find that typically getting what one wants seldom pays off as you might expect. After the initial surge of interest, food trucks will level off.
Then we get to make fun of the people who don’t eat at food trucks as not wanting to be progressive people. Then we can start mourning food truck departures as much as we did Kings, Jackpot, and the Rockford.
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BG
09/07 08:16 AM
Now that this is over, you very excited folks should take this energy and put it into fighting the discriminatory amendment that is just a few stories down from this one on the homepage.
NC is set to allow the majority determine the rights of a minority and potentially cripple the business climate across the state. -
RaleighFoodState
09/07 11:57 AM
Can’t wait to see McDonald’s and Burger King food trucks. With only a few hoops to jump through, they’ll be locating all around town to pick up on customers they’d be missing at their brick and mortar stores. Hopefully at that point, the same people who were pro food truck, will continue their advocacy of minimal regulation and lobbying city council to allow for the further expansion of food trucks. Somehow though, once the operator is Burger King, rather than Klausie’s Pizza, this entire love of food trucks will take a different tone.
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Rob E.
09/07 12:35 PM
As can be seen by the abundance of fast food food trucks in other cities, many of which with less restrictions then Raleigh.
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Henry The IV
09/07 12:52 PM
I plan on opening up a brick and mortar burger joint in North Raleigh where rents are cheaper and have a food truck to tap into the downtown crowd. For a $150 permit I can have a spot downtown? Awesome! Why bother rennovating an empty retail space downtown and pay high rents if you only plan to sell burgers / pizza / ice cream / dumplings / or gourmet tacos?
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richardfoc
09/07 01:07 PM
Let BK or McDonald’s bring the food trucks because at the end of the day it is all about location, location, location. If BK sets up a truck next to OnlyBurger at Rebus or Big Boss I think we all know who will win that battle. Competition is always good and if the corporate giants want to get in the food truck game more power to them but I seriously doubt we are going to see that happen here in Raleigh if it hasn’t happened in other more food truck friendly cities like Austin…or Durham.
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Dick Hertz
09/07 01:09 PM
Where are the examples of fast food trucks in other cities? Surely Portland, Manhattan, even Durham must be overrun with them according to this logic.
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Henry IV
09/07 01:38 PM
Dick - While it isn’t a huge issue don’t kid yourself that the Big Chains aren’t slowing creeping into the scene. They jsut take longer to jump on trends. It is slowly happening in other cities. I don’t expect Raleigh or Durham to be “overrun” with chain fodo trucks, but eventually a few will pop up. Just check out this Article from the Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303341904575576760919368160.html?mod=rss_newyork_main
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matt
09/07 02:17 PM
Yeah, do keep us posted when you actually see a McDonalds or Burger King truck. That article refers to a couple fairly small companies running franchises - very small chains, nothing at all like the nightmare scenario RaleighFoodState posted above!
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RaleighFoodState1
09/07 10:01 PM
A large company can do almost anything a small company can do. Often times they have more resources and can operate more efficiently and create a better product. If there is a market for food trucks, the bottom line is that the bigger restaurants will notice and attempt to enter the game.
Who knows if they will be well received or not. My point is that I hope everyone will remain pro food truck and anti-regulation when the group applying for the permit is a national franchise, and not just a local grass roots start up.
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Esteban Colberto vII
09/08 12:42 AM
This report examines five common types of vending regulations in the 50 largest U.S. cities. All but five major cities have at least one of these types of regulations, while 31 have two or more.
AMERICA"S LIST OF PROGRESSIVE CITIES*
Arlington, TX
Mesa, AZ
Boston
Colorado Springs
Austin*Please, move away.
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Synaesthesiac
09/08 12:47 AM
^ The idea that a large company can do almost anything a small company can do is a completely incorrect and unfounded assumption. It’s one thing for a large company to slightly modify their production process to mass produce something. It’s another for a large company to engage in an entirely different business model. My guess is that it’s much simpler to just keep dropping more McDonald’s brick-and-mortar locations everywhere. McDonald’s has no reason to engage in a large-scale, full-fleet food truck industry. The scale of such an operation is way too massive—they just as well get involved in oil or transportation.
You might see a few McDonald’s trucks in high-traffic areas such as large concerts, in Times Square, etc, as it’s a good marketing opportunity. Full-scale market immersion is unlikely. You may also see some kind of franchise spinoff where entrepreneurs could sell McDonald’s food from a truck, but even here, McDonald’s wouldn’t risk damaging their brand with the inconsistencies and difficulty of regulating mobile food trucks. Also, there’s a culture amongst food truck entrepreneurs that is at odds with big corporate chains, so where are we going to find an army of pro-McDonald’s food truck entrepreneurs? Etc., etc., it just isn’t going to happen.
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Dick Hertz
09/08 09:00 AM
It makes perfect sense. McDonald’s, a global multi billion dollar corporation, is going to completely change its business model because Klausie’s sold a few extra slices of pizza in downtown Raleigh.
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Marky Mark
09/09 03:56 PM
One can only hope the over-reacting hipsters who threatened to leave Raleigh because it wasn’t “progressive” enough to allow food trucks, won’t have time to reconsider, or have already left.
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