The inside scoop on how a Public Food Truck Program is created

By Ben Kamber, Senior Management Analyst, Office of Housing and Community Development

In April, Atlanta City Council voted unanimously to adopt legislation that re-makes the city’s public food truck program. For the first time, the Department of City Planning now has permission to designate new on-street parking locations across the city for food truck operations, which will lead to a more vibrant and robust public food truck program.

This milestone is the culmination of a nearly yearlong process that started with a question: How can the city reinvigorate its public truck program – and improve the public realm – in a way that serves both the food truck industry and neighborhoods interested in welcoming food trucks to their business districts?  

The answer to this question was revealed through a series of conversations, meetings and work sessions with food truck operators, neighborhood business district advocates, NPUs, city employees from various departments and City Council members.  What follows is an inside look at how the city’s new food truck program was developed and how its authorizing legislation was advanced.

Solving a problem: Too few food truck locations

In May 2020, I began working at the Department of City Planning in a position to help shape and improve neighborhood-scale economic development in the City of Atlanta. One of my responsibilities is managing parts of the city’s public vending program, which includes carts, brick and mortar kiosks and food truck locations, all primarily in downtown. It was a strange time to start a new job, given the pandemic, working remotely and the general uncertainty impacting all parts of life. It was also a time where public vending activity was suffering greatly. During normal times, public vendors rely on foot traffic from the university, office, and tourism populations. These groups largely compose downtown’s daytime population – and they subsequently left the area due to the pandemic.   

With the limited vending activity, the pandemic provided space to dig into possible improvements to the city’s vending programs. One area that felt ripe for exploring was how to address challenges faced by food trucks operating in the city. Pre-pandemic, food truck activity in Atlanta largely consisted of vending at special events and on private property. On-street food truck vending, in the public right-of-way, was limited to a four-square block area near Atlanta City Hall and the Fulton County Government Center called “Government Walk.” This area was created in 2013 and has since had limited utilization by food trucks due to a narrow customer base and competition with cars for the most attractive spaces.

In figuring out how the city could support and become more welcoming to food trucks, I spoke to many food truck owners with experience operating in the city. One request brought up by just about everyone was the need for additional locations throughout the city to operate from. This led me, several of my colleagues in the Office of Housing and Community Development, and other partners down the path of determining the best way to add new on-street food truck locations

Adding new locations through an administrative process?

At this time, the only way to designate on-street parking areas for food truck operations were if those exact locations were specified in the municipal code. That means that if you wanted to add a new location, you would need to advance an ordinance through the legislative process each time a new location or group of locations were added (or removed). But what if new food truck locations could be added through an administrative process instead? This would make the process more efficient (it takes a lot of time to advance an ordinance each time a new location is created or removed), flexible (it allows for some administrative discretion in location decisions) and community-driven (it allows for a formal process for individuals and communities to request new on-street food truck locations). 

Advancing an ordinance to allow administrative designation of new locations

After conferring with the City’s legal department, we learned that while there were no laws restricting administrative designation of public, right-of-way food truck locations, it would require a one-time legislative action. The legislation would need to amend the city’s public vending code to authorize the Department of City Planning to designate new locations. It would also need to contain the criteria that must be met before a location could be approved for food truck operations.

For much of the latter half of 2020, work was undertaken on this legislation and the rules and regulations for how the administrative process would work. Further refinements were made based on ongoing feedback gathered from food truck operators, neighborhood business district advocates, city employees from various departments and others. Finally, in November 2020 the legislation was submitted for discussion and a vote in City Council’s Public Safety Committee. The legislation ultimately was held in the committee, pending a review and comment by all 26 of the city’s Neighborhood Planning Units (NPUs) and a public work session hosted by the Public Safety Committee.

Additional public outreach: NPUs and public work session

Given the legislative and NPU calendars, the additional public engagement that the Public Safety Committee directed us to conduct would need to begin in January 2021. Throughout that month, my colleagues and I in the Office of Housing and Community Development presented the food truck legislation at all 25 NPU meetings. The feedback we gathered from this engagement led to further program improvements, including the addition of an online reservation system that food trucks are required to use to operate from designated food truck areas. In March 2021, the Public Safety Committee held a public work session on the legislation that resulted in one final change: all designated food truck areas will be submitted for review and comment to the NPU in which the proposed area is located before final approval of the location is made.

Legislation adopted!

Following the public work session and final changes made to the legislation, the Public Safety Committee voted unanimously to advance the ordinance to full Council. On April 19 – following a year of policy and program development, public engagement and many twists and turns along the way – City Council voted unanimously to adopt legislation that will lead to a more vibrant and robust public food truck program and public realm for the City of Atlanta.

Have a great ideas for a new food truck location? Visit AtlantaGa.gov/Vending to learn more.