Northampton City Hall.
Reminder Publishing photo by Trent Levakis
NORTHAMPTON — The Ordinance Review Committee will recommend that the City Council form a special committee to review the city’s food truck ordinance. The recommendation will be made sometime in January when the new council is in office.
The Ordinance Review Committee is coming off its five-year review of the city’s ordinances and will present their final report to the incoming council next month. The report will include a recommendation to establish a special committee to review the food truck ordinance following discussions from a November Ordinance Review Committee Nov. 12 meeting.
The meeting was conceived by At Large City Councilor Garrick Perry in an effort to review the city’s current ordinance on food trucks as the city moves toward a “renaissance,” according to Perry, who served as chair of the committee over the last year. The current mobile food truck vehicles ordinance was added in 2013 and states, “No person or entity shall operate a mobile food vehicle on any street or other public property without a mobile food vehicle permit issued by the Northampton Police Department.” The ordinance also states that mobile food vehicles are not permitted to operate in the Central Business or Florence Village districts.
During that Nov. 12 committee meeting, Alan Wolf, chief of staff to Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra, shared some results stemming from a Google form sent out to 44 different business owners in the city. The survey’s goal was to gauge what people felt about the current food truck ordinance and if they think any changes are necessary. Just under half of those respondents were owners or managers of local restaurants, while 18% of respondents were from a retail background.
The survey quickly captured that many were open to the discussion, but some restaurant owners were cautious in what benefits could really come from allowing more access to food trucks without hurting the brick-and-mortar businesses making up downtown.
“To the extent that they do — and they do demonstrate some flexibility to have the conversation — they really want to make sure that whatever happens, it’s fair and that it takes into account the operational challenges of brick-and-mortar restaurants,” Wolf said at the meeting.
Wolf added that night that while there was a lot of caution in responses, there was still creative thinking on how this could be addressed or improved upon, with 60% of respondents indicating they were open to the idea of late-night access for food trucks once restaurants were closed.
The biggest concern expressed from the night was that if the city were to eventually make changes to the ordinance to allow more food trucks access throughout the city, there would need to be protection for the existing brick-and-mortar restaurants.
Perry reiterated when speaking to Reminder Publishing just before the New Year that he brought the ordinance up with the specific intention of creating a space for discussion around operational hours for food trucks and where the trucks would be allowed to operate in the city. As someone with a background in the city’s entertainment, service, food and hospitality industries, Perry said downtown’s overall ecosystem is close to his heart.
Perry added that since the pandemic, he has seen firsthand how the city’s downtown has changed.
“I watched as it really impacted our nightlife, our scene. The last time someone even really reviewed this food truck ordinance in particular was in 2013, when it was amended, and Northampton was a very different place. We had numerous venues, a vibrant nightlife. Food was available for a huge range of hours,” said Perry. “One of the reasons I brought this ordinance up was because I think times have changed.”
A full believer that more vibrancy will return down the road for the city’s downtown, Perry said these preliminary discussions around the ordinance are simply used to get the ball rolling on identifying what could work for the city as it moves forward.
“A lot of people got very nervous that when I brought forth discussing this ordinance, that we were going to immediately just open the streets up to food trucks, and that was not my intent. My intent was to start the discussion,” said Perry. “There’s been a lot of talk in Northampton about communication and how we move forward on things, and I wanted this to be the first step to look at the food truck ordinance in particular, because I think that my years as a person in the service industry, I know the pressures and the hindrances that are there.”
With less active clubs open during late-night hours, Perry noted that it makes it difficult for restaurants to stay open later due to cost of labor. He added that hopefully these upcoming discussions could help identify ways to accommodate those looking for food late at night.
Perry also noted that some of the fast food managers on King Street have told him that they have seen a lot of business during late night hours, a sign that Perry said allowed him to jumpstart these food truck conversations again.
“That was really the impetus for me too, realizing that we didn’t have food, and these fast food places were benefiting. What I want is for people to stay in the area, buy some food, maybe a drink and enjoy some more nightlife,” added Perry.
Perry said that while a lot of this discussion around food access during late nights in the city is tied to the operational status of different venues in the city, he believes that is not the only way to bring more dining options back to the later hours.
“There’s a lot of talk about what I call the C.I.P., the Calvin, the Iron Horse and Pearl Street, and the importance of those venues. I truly believe they are important to the city, but those are venues that generate tourism,” Perry said. “Without having smaller venues, places for people to actually congregate, places for bands to grow fanbases, places for our students and workers to go and hang out after work, it makes it harder for even the Iron Horses, the Calvins to exist.”
“I want to be proactive,” Perry continued. “So I think one of the solutions and something I want to work towards is really cultivating those smaller spaces, because those are the spaces that I saw the late night food really benefiting. I’m looking at ways to help our constituents, the citizens who live here, the employers, employees, [can] have access to things.”
Perry added he thinks students from Smith would be more inclined to come out for a late night food truck than they would for a sit down dinner at certain hours, another reason to look at how potentially food trucks could fill that gap without competing with brick-and-mortars.
“There’s a lot of talk that all we have to do is open the Calvin and Northampton will be saved, and I do not believe that,” Perry added.
Perry said he is confident that the new council will accept the recommendation made by the Ordinance Review Committee to form a special committee to further review the ordinance on food trucks. Once the council approves the recommendation, a special committee would then be formed.
Perry said he hopes the special committee will gather more data from restaurant owners and establish more consistent communication between business owners and the public on what could work with regard to the ordinance.
Perry also hopes to see the special committee focus on city spaces and where food trucks can operate. Currently, the ordinance does not allow for a food truck to be on any city-owned property. Through these discussions, he hopes the future committee will identify potential areas that could be designated sites for food trucks.
“My goal is not to have food trucks compete or hurt existing businesses,” Perry said. “I think of it as a tool to be utilized to help fill in gaps.”
