Town Planner To Come Up With Draft Regulation Relating To Mobile Food Vendors

Town Planner David Anderson has been asked by the Board of Selectmen to work with the town attorney to come up with a draft regulations relating to mobile food vendors. 

The mobile food vendors in town include High Tide Gourmet run by Madison resident Rich Messier, Taco Pacifico run by Madison resident Greg Sharon, and the Sugar Bakery & Sweet Shop cupcake truck from East Haven. Messier and Sharon attended the meeting, along with Kingsley Goddard, who runs a farm stand on the Boston Post Road. Goddard wondered whether his stand would be affected. Others wondered whether Papa Joe's Good Humor truck would be affected by any changes. 

Town officials said during a selectmen's meeting Monday night that the town has received comments about the trucks. Most of the comments have been positive and were from people who felt they added something interesting and useful to the town, town officials said. Some of the comments have been negative. The negative comments have come from residents and from businesses, some of which feel that they compete with the food trucks for business. 

The level of vitriol relating to the discussion of the trucks in Madison Patch also was discussed. And a woman named Ellen, who asked that her last name not be used, said outside of the meeting that there are at last ten people named Ellen in town and that people should not make assumptions about which Ellen started a discussion about the food trucks recently on Madison Patch. She said she was so concerned about the intensity of the discussion that she felt threatened because her name was Ellen. "People should not make assumptions," she said. "I brought my husband here tonight because I was so concerned. It's such a heated discussion." 

She suggested that the discussion on Madison Patch would be more worthwhile, and that people would be more willing to participate, if identities were validated and others on the site knew who they were talking with on the site. She suggested that the level of vitriol might drop as well, making the discussions on the site more worthwhile to the town and its residents. 

Madison resident Gus Horvath was the first to speak during the public comment section of the selectmen's meeting Monday night. He suggested putting a limit on the number of trucks allowed. He suggested that the limit be four. 

Anderson, the town planner, later in the meeting said that there are currently eight vendors licensed in town, and that he has received inquiries from two more vendors. "If all ten showed up on the same day, that might be a problem," he said, noting that the area nearby is a residential zone. 

Dr. June Dunn stood up to speak in favor of the trucks. 

"I am here in support of the food trucks, particularly Rich's High Tide Gourmet. I have been very disturbed by the level of vitriol on Madison Patch, and the current of racism and classism is not warranted. It bespeaks very poorly of Madison ... It's a parody of Guess Who's Coming To Dinner in a roundabout way."

"That's a reason why I sometimes avoid the blogs ... I think the tone rarely reflects the town of Madison," Selectman Joe MacDougald said.

A woman who lives on Island Avenue, nearby where the trucks operate, said she had some concerns about the trucks operating so close to a residential area. She said she has lived on Island Avenue for 45 years and that the trucks have only become an issue in the last year or so. She said the generators were noisy, that the trucks receive food deliveries, and that the trucks take up too many parking places that otherwise would be available to residents. 

She also said outside of the meeting that $2 million was spent to beautify they area and that the trucks make Madison look like "Long Wharf in New Haven." 

Richard Bungiro, a Madison resident who is a Ph.D. Lecturer in Biology Molecular Microbiology & Immunology at Brown University in Rhode Island also spoke in favor of the trucks. 

"I am a 12-year resident of Madison. I teach at Brown in Providence. And I mention that because I continue to live in Madison. This is an incredibly special town and I feel privileged to live here," he said. "I am in support of the food vendors because I think they add an important vibrancy to our town, to the mix. I do recognize that folks to have issues with regard to parking, with regard to noise issues, and also perhaps emissions from generators.

"But my guess is that those are all solvable issues and I think the town can be pro-active and lay down some reasonable rules ... and I think we can all get along that way," he said. 

Anderson, the town planner, said it was his idea to put the item on the agenda after discovering there was "some conversation in the community" about the trucks. He said the trucks are regulated by the town, but only to the extent that they need a vendor permit from the police department, and that they need an inspection and permit from the health department. 

He said the town does currently have an ordinance related to peddlers, and that the Board of Selectmen, upon a recommendation from the Chief of Police, can make regulations as they deem necessary about the peddlers. 

"So the town may be able to formulate rules" rather than come up with an entirely new ordinance that would require a public hearing, he said. 

Selectman MacDougald said he saw only one problem with additional regulation. 

"The problem is that I don't really see what the problem is here," he said.

Anderson said there is no problem now, but that they regulations could be designed to head off problems in the future.  He said some towns specify, for example, that food vendors not be allowed to operate within 500 feet of existing brick and mortar restaurants, so as not to compete with businesses that pay for rent and pay taxes to the town. 

Anderson noted that, as was pointed out by Gus Horvath earlier in the meeting, that the property in front of Academy is part state right of way, and partly owned by the town, which would have to be taken into consideration while developing any regulations.  

"Overall I hear more positive than negative about the trucks," Anderson said. "Still, it's worthwhile to discuss." 

First Selectman Fillmore McPherson said his office has received many comments and that, like the town planner's office, most of the comments have been positive. But he said he too thought it would be worthwhile to come up with draft regulations to head off potential future problems.

"Would [Papa Joe's] ice cream truck be included?" Selectman Joan Walker asked. 

Anderson said he would, adding that the Good Humor truck is truly mobile in the sense that it moves from one part of town to another during the course of the day, and that operations like that are what was envisioned when the current regulations were drafted. Several at the meeting noted that food trucks are becoming not only more popular, but more innovative in terms of the cuisine they provide. 

Walker noted that some regulations might have unintended consequences. For example, if a 500-foot prohibition was enacted, that could prevent Papa Joe from selling his wares during parades and other events downtown. 

McPherson said exceptions for parades could be taken into consideration. 

McPherson said among the complaints he received was one from a farmer's market participant. The farmer's market is on Friday afternoon and early evenings and at least three food trucks are often in the space in front of Academy School, serving food to people from the farmer's market. 

"I received a complaint that they were taking up parking places, and taking away customers," he said. 

Selectman Diane Stadterman said she did not get downtown much, and she wondered what the peak hours were for food truck customers. 

The vendors were invited to speak and Greg Sharon, from Taco Pacifico, got up to speak. 

"I started operating out of Dino's, but it became cost prohibitive to operate on private property," he said. He said he was originally told by a police officer that he could not take up more than one parking spot and that his old truck did take up more than one spot. He said he sometimes can fit his new truck into one parking place, but that sometimes it can be hard to fit into one parking place. 

He said he usually is there from about 10 or 10:30 a.m. until about 7 p.m. 

He said he too had concerns about operating during the same hours as the farmer's market. "I have seen so, so many near collisions with cars rushing in and out. I see kids running across the parking lot without looking. With all that traffic there, we decided we did not want to be associated with that activity past 3 p.m. on Fridays," when the farmer's market starts up, he said. 

He added that his new truck  has a generator that is so quiet that the health inspector didn't even know it was operating when he inspected the truck.

He added that he enjoyed working in his hometown. "It has been a pleasure serving everyone" he said, sitting down to applause. 

Selectman Al Goldberg said he would like to see a draft of some regulations.

MacDougald recommended they keep any such regulation "light." 

"Unless there is a problem, keep it mild," he said. "I would leave it open, but perhaps subject to pulling the permits within a short period of time if a problem does develop. We're fixing a problem that, at the moment, is not a problem." 

Anderson noted that there is a residential area nearby and that the town attorney did feel it was appropriate to come up with some kind of regulation since the activity was taking place, in part, on town property. 

"There is no express permission for them to be at Academy School," he said. 

"I'd be interested in some light-touch regulation," MacDougald said. "Let's not go overboard."