Food Truck Court Rules

At a glance

What: a proposed Unified Development Ordinance amendment (May 2026) creating a permanent food truck court land use with stalls, permanent restrooms and site plan review, and requiring one for three or more food trucks on a site.
Where it stands: after objections that it would hurt existing vendors, staff withdrew Amendment 3 on May 28, 2026. The minutes do not label the amendments, but this discussion matches the withdrawn item.
Next: no date; Planning Director Khin said revisiting would take time.

Reese asked how it affects three food trucks regularly parked at a Latino grocery store on Williams Street; Venable said sites with three or more would need an approved court. Venable and Planning Director Khin said trucks are supposed to return to a commissary every 24 hours, that some stay for days, and that staff had been asked by property owners about courts (including one at Beaver Creek Crossings). Transient vendors are permitted through the Police Department; Wake County health regulates compliance.
Zegerman liked a framework for future courts but worried about creating nonconforming sites and favored four or five trucks as the threshold. Town Manager Vosburg said staff could raise the number.
Reese said the rule threatens working-class vendors, especially with high fuel prices, and asked for a way to grandfather existing trucks. Mayor Gilbert agreed it sent the wrong message as written. Mayor Pro Tem Mahaffey thought the requirements were not onerous.
No one signed up to speak at the hearing. Council approved Amendments 1 and 2 (4-0); a motion by Reese, seconded by Mu, to withdraw Amendment 3 was not voted on because staff withdrew it.

Discussed at the May 2026 UDO amendments hearing; withdrawn. See also Heavy Industrial Zoning District.