HARLINGEN — For years, brightly long, detailed food trucks have been parking along the city’s streets, drawing residents to their spicy roadside fare featuring taquitos, grilled fajitas and stuffed nachos.
Now, the city is paving the way to bring a food truck park that might feature live music to town.
Earlier this week, city commissioners took their first step to pass an ordinance setting regulations to allow a food truck park to open here.
The question is — how far from homes would officials allow a developer to build the park.
During a meeting Wednesday, commissioners passed the first reading of an ordinance setting regulations that would allow a developer to open a food truck park 1,000 feet from a residential zoning district.
“There is a lot of interest at this time for a food truck park to be developed in the city of Harlingen,” Xavier Cervantes, the city’s planning director, told commissioners.
“They’re large properties that potentially have hundreds of people on the property,” he said. “As you may know, some of these parks have concert stages or DJs and they can be very noisy, especially in the evenings. With these parks, the music is usually every day.”
Developer questions 1,000-foot distance requirement
During the meeting’s public comment period, Christian Zanca, a Brownsville food truck park owner, told commissioners he believed the proposed 1,000-foot barrier would set the park too far from homes.
“That’s kind of the whole point of the thing — to be kind of close to a residential zone to get the family out there,” Zanca said, adding his Brownsville park featured live music.
“With the right sound equipment and the right positioning of speakers, you can pretty well cancel out any noise,” he said. “We put the money and the effort in hiring some really good sound guys to put together a system there at the park that pretty much limits it to 100 to 200 feet — to the edge of our park is as far as you can hear the music.”
Uribe wants food truck parks held at same ‘standards’
Amid discussion, Commissioner Victor Leal said he wanted to keep a distance of at least 1,000 feet between a food truck park and neighborhoods.
“I think this is really, really good,” he said of the prospects of bringing a food truck park to town. “I would hate to see us lose a potential to have business.”
However, Commissioner Richard Uribe questioned whether officials were requiring a food truck park to be located further from homes than other businesses.
Meanwhile, Mayor Chris Boswell expressed similar concerns.
“Are we holding them to a stricter standard than we hold ourselves when we have an event? Are we not adhering to the same requirements of noise?” Uribe asked.
“I’m not comfortable with putting restrictions on somebody who’s going to come invest big money and put dollars into our community and yet we’re not following the same standards,” he said.
Before commissioners voted to pass the ordinance’s first reading, Boswell said they would discuss distance requirements before finalizing the regulations.
What’s in the proposed ordinance?
Across the country, food truck parks can mean big business, featuring concerts drawing large crowds.
Now, more food truck parks are popping up across the Rio Grande Valley.
Last week, Harlingen’s Planning and Zoning board proposed the ordinance which describes a food truck park as a “parcel of privately owned land where two or more mobile food trailers or concession trailers congregate on a continuous regular basis selling food or beverages to the public.”
Under the proposal, the city would restrict food truck parks to general retail or industrial zoning districts.
Inside the parks, the proposed ordinance would require food trucks to be located at least 10 feet from each other.
The proposed ordinance would also require food trucks be equipped with approved potable water hookups, sewer facilities and grease traps.
Meanwhile, workers who handle food and drinks would be required to show valid food handler’s training certificates.
The ordinance would also require food trucks selling alcohol to hire security guards during peak hours from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursdays to Saturdays.
Under a current ordinance, the city requires food trucks to provide video surveillance and adequate lighting along with approved waste receptacles.
Now, that ordinance also requires food trucks to be located at least 1,000 feet from homes and businesses such as restaurants.
