The state of eating and drinking continues to change and expand here in Downtown Raleigh. New restaurants are opening while others are re-inventing themselves. It’s just part of the always growing revitalization that is happening here and residents are enjoying it in a big way.
A new twist on the food scene for downtown is the food trucks. The City of Raleigh is wrestling with ways to allow them to operate in our city fairly and safely. The debate has continued on for more than a year and the Downtown Living Advocates are making a case for the city to finally amend its zoning permits to allow food trucks to operate in downtown Raleigh with limitations on placement.
Click through the slides for a brief overview of the survey results and ideas.
A recent poll of DLA members shows a mix of responses supporting food trucks with and without certain limitations. The main concerns for DLA members are operating hours and places of operation.
Food truck support comes from well over 95 percent of the DLA responses, but members felt differently on the issue. The first concern about food trucks is where they operate. This is the second largest response (30 percent) after the most popular option of no restrictions. (39 percent) Only a small amount, 5 percent, felt that hours were the only concern about the food trucks in downtown.
Nineteen percent of respondants favored restrictions on both placement and hours of operation. Finally, only about 6 percent of members wanted food trucks only during major events or not at all.
The data speaks for itself: DLA residents of Downtown Raleigh want food trucks operating in our center city.
The DLA Supports The 100-foot Rule.
There are some food business owners within downtown who have expressed concern about the operation of the food trucks here and how it may affect their business. The DLA is in support of the 100-foot rule that has been discussed by city council. This rule limits the operation of a food truck to areas outside of 100 feet away from the front door of a restaurant. We feel this rule would be fair to both our current neighbors and those who wish to operate here soon.
The DLA has created a visual map of downtown Raleigh, showing surface parking lots and an approximate area of where those food truck operation areas would be under the 100-foot rule. Please refer to the map below.
;)
Purple = Downtown Raleigh, Yellow = surface lots, Red = 100 foot area, no truck operation
All distances approximate. Click for a larger view.
The map helps us visualize what the future operation of food trucks could be under the 100-foot rule. It is important to notice that the Glenwood South area and Fayetteville Street are completely covered in red, meaning no food trucks will be allowed in this area. This then creates a fair operating environment to a majority of downtown’s food businesses, which are in these areas.
The surface parking lots, shown in yellow, present an opportunity for food trucks. These lots are typically underutilized for most hours of the day and can then be re-used during off-peak hours. The food trucks can park in those lots, outside of the area created by the 100-foot rule, and bring activity to an area that typically sees little traffic or pedestrian activity. The DLA encourages the city to look into this option so a compromise can be made.
DLA residents are all neighbors with the businesses in downtown Raleigh and support a fair compromise with the 100-foot rule. We encourage everyone, member or not, to write to the Raleigh City Council to voice their opinion on this matter. Please copy and paste the letter below and send it to the entire city council at the below e-mail address to let them know where you stand.
Support Food Trucks In Raleigh
Dear Raleigh City Council,
I am writing to you today to urge you to take a closer look at the ongoing food truck debate and to please support the operation of food trucks in Raleigh. Along with the clear support of the Downtown Living Advocates (DLA), a resident-based group in Raleigh, I, too, support the food trucks in my city. I encourage you to visit this link and see the DLA’s results and thoughts on the issue.
Strong Support For Food Trucks By DLA Membership via RaleighDLA.com (http://theraleighcommons.org/raleighdla//home/2011/8/25/strong-support-for-food-trucks-by-dla-membership.html)
I support a compromise between food truck and food businesses with the 100-foot rule so that each can operate fairly in our city. I feel that the surface parking lots all over Raleigh are very underutilized and pairing them with mobile food options makes a lot of sense.
Please come to a conclusion on this issue and support this growing food industry in our city.
Regards,
Raleigh Citizen
Awesome job Leo!!!! Having this type of detail and an organized voice will definitely educate the City Government.
Nice job. I am not a fan of the 100 foot rule, but if it's required to get this issue resolved, then so be it. If we were talking about public spaces, it would be an issue worth considering, but we're talking about restrictions on property owners based solely on their proximity to a restaurant. The properties in question could become restaurants with no proximity restrictions, but cannot host a food truck which strikes me as a bizarre, double standard. A property that is hosting food trucks could become unable to host food truck if a restaurant sets up next door. The map shows current restricted/allowable area (if the 100 foot restriction is adopted) but if downtown continues to thrive and grow and spread beyond Fayetteville and Glenwood, food trucks would again be forced further away from downtown. With today's map it doesn't look like too onerous a compromise, but it remains an unjustified restriction on property owners and could be an untenable, long-term solution. Sadly the proposed restrictions being placed on the food trucks and property owners only seem to be getting more onerous with more nonsensical justifications. It's too bad that something that seems to be desired by the majority of the residents is so hard to push through. And it does make you question in whose best interest the city council is acting.