Bellefonte Digesting New Food Truck Ordinance

With no ordinance on the books for food trucks, Bellefonte’s borough council is working on an ordinance to put very minimal regulations on the food vendors that are growing ever more popular.

Borough manager Ralph Stewart said the borough understands food trucks are popular, and council feels it is important to have some small regulations regarding their use in the area for health and safety purposes. The borough also wants to keep a fair playing field for businesses in the area.

According to Stewart, the borough modeled the potential ordinance after one recently adopted by Lock Haven. The ordinance would require the minimum state licensing and not require any extra local permit.

“We don’t want to make an additional burden of regulation,” said Stewart. He said it also was to provide regulation on the number of hours a food truck could operate and what kind of timeframe that would be allowed in.

Stewart also said it was important to be fair to local brick-and-mortar businesses, providing a setback that would not allow food trucks to operate too closely to permanent restaurants.

A food truck currently operates on occasion near the Match Factory building. Stewart said he feels like the parking lot across from the school, where Mount Nittany Health recently opened, is a potential location for a future food truck to come into the area.

After discussing the ordinance again, borough council will advertise it, then put it up for approval in August, at the earliest, Stewart said.