- April 23, 2024
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Ice cream trucks might gain legal standing in Flagler Beach. But under an ordinance the Flagler Beach City Commission approved Thursday on first reading, other mobile food vendors would be banned.
There would be exceptions for farmers markets and special events, and even trucks selling prepackaged ice cream would be barred from Oceanshore Boulevard and State Road 100.
The commission has discussed the mobile food vendor issue repeatedly for more than a year, and the commission vote was divided 3-2 Thursday: Commission Chairman Steve Settle and Commissioners Kim Carney and Joy McGrew voted for the ordinance, and Commission Vice Chairwoman Jane Mealy and Commissioner Marshall Shupe voted against it.
The motion considered Thursday night had, in fact, passed once before on first reading, then it was altered and not taken up on second reading. Thursday night’s vote was still considered first reading.
The repeated revisiting of this issue has frustrated members of the public, though, as well as some commissioners.
“We’ve got to get something on the books, or we have nothing to fall back on,” Carney said to fellow commissioners during the meeting. “We’ve got to get it there. Please.”
She said she doesn’t want people selling sandwiches from food trucks or hot dog stands, “but other than that, it’s prepackaged. What’s the problem? What’s wrong with it?” she said.
“I don’t like the trucks,” Mealy replied. “I don’t like the idea that somebody has a brick and mortar business and all the fees and taxes and expenses that go into that, and this person pays $35 and takes the money that they make and runs off to some other city because they don’t live here.”
Mealy said she also thinks mobile food vendors don’t “enhance the looks of the city,” and that they are a safety hazard.
During the public comment section, some residents said they’d had it with the commission’s repeated consideration of the food truck issue.
Flagler Beach resident Karen Barchowski, who owns Sally’s Ice Cream, said she felt the ordinance considered Thursday should go to a committee.
“This has been going on for many years,” she said. “I don’t think anything should be voted on tonight or decided on tonight, because I don’t think it’s thought through, and it is not the consensus of the entire city of Flagler Beach. ... I would be happy to sit on the committee.”
Barchowski criticized commissioners for speaking in terms of “I” instead of “we,” saying they should be representing the community.
“We’ve only got six people in Flagler Beach who are elected,” Settle responded. “You’re looking at them. We’re representing everybody.”
Nadine King, president of the nonprofit Christmas Come True, also said she’d like to see the issue decided by a community committee.
“I do believe that we should have a committee that goes through this and analyzes it,” she said. “You’ve been at this for way too long.”
King said she could understand barring out-of-towners from setting up shop with mobile food trucks, but she said the ordinance shouldn’t make things harder for locals. There are also places where mobile food vendors would be an asset, she added, like some parts of the beach.
“I could understand not letting anyone sell from boardwalk end to boardwalk end,” she said. “But the people who are further out on the beaches, who are there during the summer and in the fall, those people would like to bring their kids up off the beach and get a hot dog, or get an ice cream sandwich,” she said.
Another resident told commissioners he opposed the idea of the commission forming a committee to evaluate an issue that is “clearly in your purview.”
The Flagler Beach City Commission plan to consider the mobile vendor ordinance again at a future meeting.
