Food Trucks in Roswell... Soon (hopefully)

You may know that the city recently approved a food truck ordinance.  We decided to take a look at the ordinance to see where we might see some food trucks. 

At first glance, it seems pretty restrictive.  It's fine to protect existing businesses and I don't want any of our eating establishments to go out of business but I think that the new ordinance may put too much power in the hands of the restaurant owners without taking into account consumer demand.  Here are some of the requrements from the ordinance (link to full ordinance): 

• The mobile food vendor shall not conduct business or operate under this article on the public right-of-way.
• The mobile food vendor shall not operate on any private property without the prior consent of the owners.
• Mobile food vendors shall be located a minimum of 200 feet from the main entrance to any eating establishment or similar food service business unless just eating establishment grants written permission for the mobile food vender to be located closer than 200 feet.
• Mobile food vendors shall not be located within 15 feet of any street intersection or pedestrian crosswalk or 10 feet of any driveway.

Now...Our thoughts on Food Trucks...  For the most part, they are a fad.  But, when done properly, they can be excellent incubators of successful food concepts.  I think there will be some in the Atlanta area that stick around for years to come.  Check out the Atlanta Street Food Coalition's list of area vendors here.  Most of them will probably die out.  That being said, There are some killer concepts out there and it would be nice to see some in the historic district especially when we have festivals going on.  Taking into account the 200 foot barrier, here's where we think you may see some set up shop in the coming months (we didn't factor in the 15 foot radius from intersections/crosswalks).  The red spots are the most prime areas where trucks might be able to set up shop.