Mt. Juliet to allow food trucks for six months

Mt. Juliet’s new food truck regulations would include limiting the number of permits to mobile food vendors to 12 neighborhood community events.

The city commission discussed its concerns on the regulations for more than 90 minutes.

Mt. Juliet Vice Mayor Bill Trivett walked out of the meeting before the final vote was taken and it ended up being 2-2, with district 3 commissioner Scott Hefner and district 1 commissioner Ray Justice voting to approve it.

Trivett returned and apologized for leaving the meeting before making a motion to have more discussion and another vote for the resolution, and it was approved.

The commissioners went over seven amendments to the ordinance.

Mt. Juliet’s sunshine clause, which would be implemented into the regulations for more than six months, was among those amendments.

Mt. Juliet Mayor James Maness, who suggested the clause, said that it would ensure whether the regulations would work for residents.

“If this is a total disaster, let’s just walk away from it,” said Maness. “But if our citizens are happy with these regulations and there are no adverse effects from them, let’s just bring it back for another six months and work on refining them.”

The commission voted unanimously to allow the clause into the ordinance.

District 4 commissioner Jennifer Milele, who opposed the ordinance, said that the regulations would cost Mt. Juliet extra money due to the city not having enough planning technicians to handle the business of working with food trucks.

The commission also debated on whether they can allow food trucks to operate in industrial districts.

Milele suggested to allow two canteen trucks per day to operate in industrial districts, particularly in areas of warehousing, goods, transport, and storage.

However, Justice thought it would not be beneficial to the city’s industrial zoning.

“If we got five separate locations that are industrial, and you are allowing two canteen trucks to operate in one location, that means three locations are not being serviced by a canteen truck due to a city ordinance,” said Justice.

Justice said that would send Mt. Juliet in a bad direction.

The commission voted 3-2 to amend that condition into the regulations.

The commission also discussed as to whether food trucks should operate in residential areas.

Hefner suggested that the commission thave two food trucks be in the residential areas from 3 p.m. until 10 p.m. on wwekdays and from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Trivett asked about whether food trucks could still operate in a residential area on the Fourth of July if it falls on a weekday. Hefner said that they could provide a waiver on that condition for food trucks.

They then voted 4-1 to amend the operation of food trucks in residential areas.