Megan Navarro
WIMBERLEY — Wimberley City Council listened to a presentation and provided staff with direction on the regulation of temporary structures, also known as temporary food establishments and mobile food vendors, during its Thursday, April 16, meeting.
This follows recent legislative changes adopted by the state of Texas, including House Bill 2844 and the addition of Chapter 437B to the Health and Safety Code, which significantly impact the regulation of these establishments and vendors, making the city of Wimberley’s section outlining temporary structures in its code of ordinances no longer consistent with state law.
“New state law is going to prevent us from enforcing our temporary structure permits, which basically governs food trucks in Wimberley. It’s going to prevent us from doing that the same way we have been doing it, which is permit application comes to city council [and] city council approves the food truck,” said Nathan Glaiser, director of Development Services. “We can no longer do the one-off permitting of food trucks.”
Glaiser brought forward a draft of regulations taken from existing ordinances enforced by the city of Lockhart, but tailored to the city of Wimberley.
The ordinance is geared toward mobile food vendors that stay at one location for more than four consecutive days — so, the one-off person who comes to do a single farmers market or something similar would not be affected, Glaiser said.
Regulations within the draft include, but are not limited to:
• Each trailer or motor vehicle used as a mobile vendor must be registered with the city and have a current mobile food unit permit used by the Texas Department of State Health Services.
• Current compliance with all applicable Texas inspection and license registration requirements for legal use on public streets.
• Only operate in zoning districts where eating establishments are a permitted use.
• Mobile food vendors shall be set back at least five feet from all property lines.
• Each mobile food vendor shall be located at least 10 feet from any other mobile food vendor or any building and at least 50 feet from any building containing a residential use.
• If a mobile food vendor is hooked up to electric, it should be connected to an individual main-disconnect breaker and the cords are not running through a parking lot or pedestrian path.
• Each mobile food vendor space shall obtain water from, and within 50 feet of, a hose bib connected directly to a public water supply. This should also not cross the path of pedestrian or vehicle traffic.
• It should not be connected directly to the city wastewater system.
Access to a common dumpster or other trash disposal facility, along with restrooms, must also be provided.
“They are all kind of based around public safety and organization and efficient land use,” said the Development Services director.
Council member Bob Clark asked if the city is going to limit the number of food trucks on a property or if that is not possible.
The city should still enforce zoning as far as where the food trucks will be located and those specific regulations can be stated in the ordinance, city attorney Esther Pena suggested. She added that there are some misconceptions with the state legislation that now, food trucks can be placed anywhere, but that is not the intent and cities still have regulatory authority to decide where they want to place them.
“What we’ve also talked about doing is setting up a food court use that would require a conditional use permit, so you would come get the permit to set up the food court, not necessarily each individual food truck, but just bring a site plan that shows the bays that they will be in and get approved by city council,” Glaiser said, noting that two or more mobile food vendors on a single lot or parcel can be known as a food court.
Another council member, Rebecca Minnick, said that this is called a temporary structure, leading her to ask if this would apply to anything else aside from a mobile food vendor. Glaiser responded that he wants the mobile food vendors to be in their own category, so there is no confusion.
The new law goes into effect July 1 and the ordinance is expected to be brought back for city council approval in June, according to Glaiser.
Wimberley City Council meets next at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 7. Find meeting agendas and recordings at www.wimberleytx.portal.civicclerk.com.
