City of Whiteville recently issued the following announcement.
A public hearing and subsequent decision later in the meeting on whether to amend the city’s zoning ordinance to allow food trucks and other mobile vendors to operate in downtown Whiteville is expected to highlight a meeting of the Whiteville City Council that gets underway Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
Jerry Spivey of Tabor City has applied to operate a food truck downtown, something the city’s current table of permitted uses does not allow, but the city’s planning and zoning board voted 4-2 in November to recommend that the city council approve the change.
The proposal has drawn opposition from owners of brick-and-mortar eating establishments, most notably Sammy Jacobs of What-a-Burger and Kandle Rogers of Ward’s Grill. After the planning board’s recommendation, Rogers said it’s unfair that mobile operators could compete against existing businesses that own or lease their buildings, pay property taxes and have had to recover from two floods in three years.
Jacobs also serves on the planning and zoning board and voted, along with John Gayle Barkley, against recommending the change to council. “It’s all about a level playing field,” Jacobs said in November, “and what they’re proposing is not a fair playing field.”
Under the proposed ordinance, food trucks and mobile vendors would be required to obtain a $75 annual permit and there would be limited of 10 such permits in the city annually. That limit would be waived for mobile vendors and food truck participating in special, scheduled events such as festivals or other city-sponsored events.
The foot truck owner would need permission of the property owner and could not locate in a public right-of-way or within 100 feet of an existing food service business. All health department permits must also be obtained. Under the proposal, food trucks and other mobile vendors could operate from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
A required public hearing during which both opponents and advocates of the proposed ordinance will be permitted to speak will be held early in Tuesday’s meeting, Council board will reach a decision later in the meeting.
In other business, most of it routine, Tuesday night, council will consider appointments to the city’s parks and recreation advisory committee, approve or deny a request from Atlantic Blue Coast Realty to adopt the recreation center complex’s recreation fields through the city’s Adopt-a-Park program, approve a cooperative agreement between the city and the State of N.C. regarding the community development block grant buyout program, designate and agent to sign paperwork on behalf of the city related to Hurricane Dorian, update signature cards on file with BB&T and consider routine budget amendments.
Original source: https://whitevillenc.gov/news/2020/1/14/hearing-on-food-trucks-to-highlight-tuesday-whiteville-council-meeting
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