Proposal puts limits on food trucks
Food trucks would have to close shop at 1 a.m. on Water Street and the rest of downtown if a new series of changes and additions to the city’s current food truck laws is passed.
The legislation unanimously passed the Licenses and Public Safety & Health committees this week and heads to the full Common Council on May 31.
The legislation would create two different food trucks zones in two different areas in the city. A Type 1 time-limited zone would be implemented downtown, where food trucks would not be allowed to operate between 1 and 6 a.m. and would be required to move every six hours.
A Type 2 density-limited zone would be implemented near Burnham Park. It would give food truck operators designated zones based on seniority.
Zones might be implemented elsewhere in the city, but those two locations are the only zones in the initial proposal.
The new law also will require food trucks citywide to not operate within 50 feet of a restaurant and to provide trash cans and pickup surrounding trash. Parking enforcement officers would be able to ticket food trucks not in compliance.
Clare Zautke, policy director in the
Mayor’s Office, appeared before the Licenses Committee and said Mayor Cavalier Johnson approved of the legislation and would sign it if it passes the Common Council.
All of downtown Milwaukee, including the surrounding Third Ward to the south, Westown to the west, and Yankee Hill to the north, would be in a Type 1 zone, according to the legislation.
Food trucks in the area will no longer be able to operate past 1 a.m. and cannot stay in a single spot for more than six hours according to the proposed ordinance. Currently, food trucks citywide can operate until 3 a.m. on weekdays and 3:30 a.m. on weekends.
A Type 2 zone will limit density of food trucks by giving them designated spots based on seniority. Burnham Park will be the first place designated as a Type 2 zone, under the proposed legislation.
Residents and food truck owners in the Burnham Park area spoke in favor of the new legislation and the Type 2 designation for the area at the Licenses Committee meeting, saying the number of food trucks there has created a dangerous situation.
Food trucks will be given specific spaces on W. Burnham St. between the city limit at S. Miller Park Way to its intersection with S. Layton Blvd. Food trucks also will be given spots on S. 32nd St. between W. Burnham St. and W. Mitchell St., and around Rogers Park on S. 33rd St. and W. Rogers St.
Food trucks will be given spots in order of seniority. Since 2013, the Licenses Committee has required food trucks to submit their general itineraries (where they park) with their food peddler applications. The committee will use those itineraries to determine who has been operating in the area the longest.
If the ordinance passes, food trucks will once again be allowed on North Water Street north of East Knapp Street, where they were banned in March in what Ald. Jonathan Brostoff called a “quick fix” while working on this more comprehensive legislation.
Food trucks also were banned on a portion of West Lincoln Avenue in Ald. JoCasta Zamarripa’s District 8. She said that restriction was no longer needed and this legislation includes an elimination of that ban.
The other aspects of the legislation that were highlighted in Tuesday’s committee meeting included new littering laws that forbid liquid waste disposal on the street, and a city-wide requirement that food trucks cannot park 50 feet from the front door of a restaurant that does not have a drive-through.
The legislation gives the city a new response to challenges with food trucks outside its current options of no action or a ban, council members said.