By Adam Swift
A proposed zoning ordinance would establish tighter definitions for the use and location of food trucks in Revere.
Monday night, the city council held a public hearing on the proposed ordinances, which will next go before the council’s zoning subcommittee before coming back to the full council for potential adoption.
Several food truck operators in the city spoke in favor of the food truck ordinances, noting that they would help support their small, local businesses.
Several councillors did raise some questions about how the food truck ordinances would affect brick and mortar restaurants in Revere, as well as the oversight and approvals of the food truck businesses.
“The impetus to this was (a) motion … submitted by Councilor (Anthony) Cogliandro in November relative to the setting of food trucks on private property,” said Tom Skwierawski, the city’s planning and community development director. “It is currently prohibited under our zoning, because our zoning is silent on the topic of food trucks, which is obviously a growing business typology and something we are looking to encourage in the city.”
What the two proposed ordinance changes do together is permit food trucks as a use with varying permitting requirements, Skwierawski said.
“So if a food truck is in the RC2 district, it needs the express permission of the DCR, and in the other districts that we would be permitting here – PDD1, which is the Suffolk Downs district –, HB, and TED, it would be permitted though the license commission,” said Skwierawski, adding that the RC2 district would also need license commission approval in addition to the DCR approval.
Skwierwaski said there could be a further discussion with the council about other potential food truck locations, but for now, he said it would be kept to the three zoning districts which were referenced.
Several current food truck operators said the proposal would open up more opportunities for their businesses and that the zoning districts and permitting process would create more small business opportunities.
“I think this would be beneficial for the local economy and I think this is also beneficial for employment opportunities,” said Emiliano Moreno, who said he owns a small food truck.
While Moreno said his operation was simple, it was helping sustain four to five families in the community.
“Our zoning proves really challenging when new business owners come in and existing business owners come in,” said city policy writer Claire Inzerillo. “It’s really hard for us to navigate between the licensing office, (community development), and sometimes the mayor’s office when they get folks in there (for) where these folks should turn to to look. If we have something solidified where you all agree where they should or should not go, it really makes a lot of sense moving forward for it to be in our zoning; our restaurants are in zoning, fast food is in zoning, coffee shops are in zoning, so that was really the intent behind this.”
Ward 4 Councillor Paul Argenzio asked about the safeguards that would protect existing brick and mortar restaurants in the city.
“The safeguards really would be the permitting process itself, working with the licensing commission, and these licenses need to be renewed on an annual basis,” said Skwierwaski.
The other safeguard, he added, was in choosing the districts and locations where the food trucks would be allowed.
“I think the idea was that if we delegate this to the licensing commission to actually make those decisions on a case-by-case basis, zoning at times can be a really blunt instrument, so if we have that rule across the board about the proximity to another location, it might make sense in some areas, it might not in others, but then our hands are basically tied with that rule,” said Skwierawski.
Ward 1 Councillor Joanne McKenna said placement is key when it comes to food trucks, and that there have been issues in the past with food trucks blocking public ways. McKenna advocated for the creation of some kind of food truck park where a number of food trucks could be centrally located.
Cogliandro and Councillor-at-Large Robert Haas, III also spoke in favor of locating a parking lot or creating a public-private partnership in the city for the location of the food trucks.
Ward 2 Councillor Ira Novoselsky said he would like to see a more detailed map at the zoning subcommittee meeting listing all the streets where food trucks would be allowed under the ordinance. Novoselsky said he was also concerned about noise from generators used to operate the trucks.
