Council Amends Food Cart Ordinance

PRAIRIE GROVE — The city’s new Food Cart Ordinance will exempt non-profit organizations from paying $100 for an annual permit to operate on public and private property and will allow mobile food vendors to operate within 100 feet of an existing restaurant with written permission from the owner.

Prairie Grove City Council amended the ordinance at its March 19 meeting.

Larry Oelrich, director of administrative services and public works, said non-profit organizations will have to adhere to other regulations in the Food Cart Ordinance. He recommended the change after a representative with a non-profit group called and asked about having to pay the permit fee.

Oelrich said he didn’t believe the intent of the ordinance was to charge non-profit organizations but that needed to be spelled out in the ordinance.

The change for allowing mobile food carts to set up near an existing restaurant was made because a local restaurant owner was interested in operating its own cart and couldn’t because of the requirements in the ordinance.

In other action, City Council members approved an ordinance to rezone lots in Sundowner Estates from commercial to single family residential and approved a resolution to apply for a grant from the Recreational Trail Program administered through the Arkansas Transportation Department. Applications are due May 1 but the city will not hear anything until fall. The grant would be 80 percent state funds, 20 percent local funds.