Seguin Gazette: Food trailers given green light from city

Seguin Gazette: Food trailers given green light from city Main Photo

9 Jun 2019


City Planning Department, Downtown, Small Business Development, City Council

Valerie Bustamante, The Seguin Gazette

Seguin, TX - The opportunity to expand the eats in Seguin received city council’s blessing.

An amendment allowing food trailers to operate within the city limits was made to the city’s current food truck ordinance — which until recently only allowed food trucks — was unanimously approved by city council during the meeting on June 4.

“Some of the requests or inquiries over the last years has been to extend the food truck ordinance to allow food trailers,” Director of Planning and Codes Pamela Centeno said. “The main difference between the two is that a food trailer is not self-propelled. It’s pulled and towed by another vehicle.”

The amendment would list both the food trucks and food trailers as mobile food vendors to be consistent with the permits the city issues as well as with those given by the state’s Department of State Health Services, Centeno said.

“We’ve had a number of requests to include food trailers. Currently, food trailers are allowed to go to an event with a temporary food permit, but not on private property outside of an event that’s why we’re getting those requests,” she said.

Since the ordinance was adopted in March 2017, Centeno said they have not received any complaints.

“It’s been a very positive ordinance that we’ve had,” she said.

Another change that is being made to the ordinance is the duration of time a mobile food vendor can be on private property.

“We had some hours, no more than 10 hours per day whether it was on a public street or private property and operating hours between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. were prohibited,” Centeno said. “We are changing the ordinance to allow mobile food vendors on private property to operate without having that duration. On public streets however, that limitation would still be applied.”

During the meeting, Councilman Jeremy Roy asked Centeno what happens if a trailer doesn’t move from the property at all.

Centeno said they still need to be licensed by the city and state because it is still considered mobile.

Additionally, the city plans to increase the number of mobile food vendors on a single lot from one to two and “define a Mobile Food Park as three or more mobile food vendors.”

Councilman Mark Herbold said the addition to the ordinance would keep customers in Seguin.

“There’s a trailer across from Clear Springs on 46 that’s sitting there nice… so people are going to New Braunfels instead of here because we haven’t approved this,” he said.

Aviles agreed with Herbold adding that Seguin is limited on food establishments.

“I think we kind of need to be a little more innovative and think outside the box … If that’s one of the ways we can propel ourselves to the future than I agree,” he said.

The amendment was approved following a motion by Herbold and Councilwoman Jet Crabb.

Valerie Bustamante is a staff writer for the Seguin Gazette. You can e-mail her at valerie.bustamante@seguingazette.com.

To view the original story from the Seguin Gazette, please click here.