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Date: 10/2/2023
GRANBY — Planning Board members continued an ongoing discussion on the town’s food truck policy during its Sept. 25 meeting.
The bulk of the discussion was centered on the Planning Board identifying whether handling the food truck policy should be through the Selectboard, or through the Planning Board and requiring a zoning bylaw. Deputy Director of Land Use and Environment Department for the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission Ken Comia works alongside the Granby Planning Board through his role with PVPC, and steered Planning Board members with information on what the town is looking at for options.
Comia provided examples from other communities on how they have managed their food truck policies and how it could be implemented in the town. One example Comia cited was through a select board policy in a different community and he explained a building inspector would sign off on what district is allowed, which allows for strict rules in place for where and where not a food truck would be permitted.
“If you were to put in this policy, food trucks are not allowed in R1 zones or residential single family zones, which can be an issue because if a lot of your large parcels do that then is there a need for the Planning Board if you are going to assume that everything was going to be site specific where, what is the zoning or what are the zoning protections for food trucks if you’re not going to prohibit them in certain parts of town,” Comia explained.
Planning Board member Melissa St. Germain Martel said she felt the general consensus from the previous discussion was that since it cost so much for permitting in Granby, it was creating barriers for the town to secure food truck businesses. She added it was cost prohibitive for food trucks to seek business in Granby.
Comia added he needs to continue doing research into what the town currently requires. Board member Nathan Laflamme said from his memory it sounded like the town had yet to recognize food trucks and had no real policy to properly implement them.
“It sounded like the town didn’t recognize food trucks yet and kind of associated it with opening a restaurant. It was difficult and expensive,” Laflamme said.
Comia agreed and said this has been a land use issue towns have been grappling with because they want to be able to permit them, but if there are restrictions in zones, they want to be able to enforce them as well.
Board member Jason Smigiel added that with the temporary nature of a food truck stand, the Selectboard having a policy in place and handling it would make more sense than the Planning Board taking and accepting permits that can pop up often for food trucks trying to get in town for a few days.
St. Germain Martel agreed with Smigiel’s point and added if there would be situations to come where a food truck wants to lock down a longer period of time set up in town, then maybe then they could consider a different permitting.
Laflamme said that while he agreed, they still needed to first find out how it was currently being handled before going forward with more discussion. He added he liked the idea of the Planning Board only regulating zoning, and letting the Selectboard handle the rest when it comes to food trucks.
St. Germain Martel said this discussion came before the board after residents expressed a want for the town to review its existing food truck policy.
“Maybe we make some suggestions to send the to the Selectboard, I think that may be a good idea just to make that process easier going forward in the future,” St. Germain Martel said.
Comia said his recommendation was that there needs to be a townwide policy and the Planning Board should not be related to the zoning bylaw. St. Germain Martel added another recommendation on how to resolve the policy should include allowing it in residential zoning, but only for personal use such as an event or birthday party for children.
“The town [needs to be] thinking about how they want to view food trucks because it seems at the moment people are going to the Selectboard, and the Selectboard are providing them with what you have to do, and it just becomes cost prohibitive because there’s no policy,” Comia said. “I think if everyone is on the same page, then there could be an opportunity to have food trucks and have events that have food trucks, because it is something that I think a lot of communities want.”
The Planning Board plans to continue this discussion at a future meeting and moving discussions forward with the town.