Louisville Committee Approves Amendments to Food Truck Ordinance

The Louisville Metro Council Public Safety Committee has approved changes to regulations that ease operations for mobile food vendors.“We were previously zoned out of the vast majority of land mass in Louisville Metro and the zoning amendments are very helpful,” said Leah Stewart, owner of Louisville Dessert Truck. “Now we can go into commercial corridors, which is where we need to be because that’s where the people are that want to buy our food.”Over the past month, vendors have been working with Mayor Greg Fischer’s staff to change regulations that never considered the fad of traveling cuisine. A previous group of amendments that sought to relax restrictions were passed, but met with resistance from vendors. They argued the changes were too onerous and would still make business difficult.The committee has now approved amendments that fix many of those issues.Vendors still need permission to be on property, but they no longer need a notarized memo from the property owner. There is also no requirement for every employee to have a vendor ID and background check. Rather, only one employee needs it. The amendments also cut down the distance vendors could sell near occupied residential property.Stewart said Metro Government has accommodated the growing phenomenon of mobile food vendors.“They’ve been very willing to amend the ordinance a couple of times now. They’ve been very supportive of us as micro-businesses and wanting to remove barriers and let us work and earn a living and be successful and that’s really what we want and we’re thankful for that,” she said.The amendments made Tuesday will be voted on in the full council meeting this Thursday.