COURT HOUSE – A contingent of food truck operators descended on the Middle Township Committee meeting Monday, Oct. 2, to complain about the township’s new ordinance regulating their businesses.
The operators say the rules, adopted by the township a month earlier, are badly damaging their businesses.
One estimate at the meeting was that between 40 and 50 food trucks operate in the township. With the high cost of starting a restaurant, food trucks have become one of the only financially feasible ways for many to enter the food service business.
The regulations put in place by the new ordinance set time limits for how long a truck can be at a single location and state how often that truck can revisit that location. There are regulations for equipment placement as well as seating.
The operators said at the recent meeting that none of them knew that the township was engaged in crafting and approving a new ordinance, a process that usually takes about a month. This is a problem often voiced at municipal meetings, because individuals most impacted by new ordinances are often unaware that regulations are being considered
Several operators said the township should have reached out to them. The township replied that no master list exists because a merchant license is not required.
Truck operators pointed to areas where they said the new regulations contradicted rules set by the state. They also said that among the regulations that handicap them are the requirements for security background checks and fingerprints. Jobs on the trucks can be temporary, can be options for those with nonviolent criminal convictions, or can appeal to those who do not have the papers for other types of employment, they said. The operators argued that the security regulations were much too onerous.
They also complained that township personnel were not well-informed and often could not answer questions or provide guidance on the new rules.
Mayor Timothy Donohue said the township had been lax for a long time with respect to food truck regulations. As the popularity and number of the trucks grew, so did the complaints. Finally, Donohue said, the township “had to act.”
Despite the public hearing on the new ordinance, which the truck operators said they did not know about, input from the owners of the trucks was not systematically sought. Donohue admitted the township should have done more to reach out to operators of the trucks.
The mayor acknowledged that changes to the ordinance were probably needed. He said the township would meet with food truck operators to gather input.
For now, some food truck operators said it would be easier to operate their businesses outside the township.
Contact the author, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
