At a meeting Monday evening, the Chapel Hill Town Council took a huge step forward for food trucks.
The council approved a new ordinance to allow for the food truck rodeos that are already enjoyed in neighboring communities. They also slashed the regulatory fee by two-thirds, reducing it to $200.
But while the changes have removed significant barriers for entrepreneurs hoping to bring food trucks to Chapel Hill, the Town Council still has more to do to make Chapel Hill a competitive and desirable food truck market.
Along with the $200 regulatory fee, enterprising food truck vendors still must pay a $25 licensing fee and $118 zoning compliance fee to the town. And that’s in addition to operating and start-up costs, which can be heavy.
Even with the new policies, neighboring towns like Durham, Carrboro and Raleigh all remain markets that are easier to enter for food trucks.
Truck owners in Carrboro pay a $75 fee compared with Chapel Hill’s $200 fee; after getting a business licence and home occupancy permit fee — the same as for other small businesses — Durham vendors pay only a $10 registration fee. Raleigh trucks pay a $150 fee and $78 for each vending location.
With the changes, it’s likely that Chapel Hill’s sole food truck, Baguettaboutit, will soon have company. But the incentives for entrepreneurs to bring food trucks to Chapel Hill — or to start them here — remain unnecessarily limited.
The fees are still somewhat hefty, and what they stifle is small business incubation — one of Chapel Hill’s most widely supported initiatives.
With the town’s current focus on business incubation — embodied in initiatives like LAUNCH Chapel Hill, the business incubator that opened in February on West Rosemary Street — the town should recognize that food trucks would provide the same benefits to the town’s economy and human capital as other small businesses they already support.
