Video by Kathryn E. Young
Story by Parker Butler and Riley Garcia
Lexington’s revamped zoning ordinance includes regulations and guidelines for the city’s budding food truck business.
The council voted on the Planning Committee’s zoning recommendations on Oct. 5.
New regulations include permitting the sale of food truck merchandise and the addition of one A-Frame sign as well as the signage on the truck.
Chef and owner of LexMex Tacos, LLC., Collin Donnelly, said he was pleased with the Planning Committee’s recommendations for mobile restaurants in the city.
“The zoning [committee] did a really good job, and they put together some really friendly pro-business mobile regulations that all made sense,” Donnelly said. “Like you can’t be within a certain distance of another restaurant, you can’t block sidewalks, and you can’t sell from a moving vehicle.”
Donnelly said he also addressed the council at the same meeting last month with a few of his own proposals, including extending the hours of permitted operation from four hours to six and extending the food truck operation hours in the evening from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The council voted to amend their recommendations after hearing Donnelly’s suggestions on Aug. 10 at the council’s bi-monthly meeting.
“More economic activity is always good, and Lexington could do with more affordable simple offerings in addition to our many great brick and mortar establishments,” City Council Member J. Patrick Rhamey said in an email. “The food trucks will get more people, residents and students, downtown, and more foot traffic downtown will help everyone, both restaurants and retail.”
Donnelly opened LexMex Tacos in September last year with the initial idea to use a tent to sell his food at various locals in the city. However, after several weather related issues and mobility concerns, he invested in a trailer for his mobile restaurant in 2017.
Donnelly’s fusion taco truck isn’t the only mobile restaurants hitting the city’s streets. Mama Crockett’s Cider Donuts has been serving its customers freshly-made apple cider doughnuts from its iconic vintage, teal trailer for years. However, co-owner of Mama Crockett’s, F.W. Willis, said the competition between the two food trucks is nothing but supportive and friendly.
“We’re planning some collaborative pop-ups in the Rockbridge area,” Willis said in an email. “We started in Rockbridge, but [we’ve] experienced much of our growth after branching into most of Central Virginia.”
In 2015, Gov. Terry McAuliffe lifted a ban on food trucks that kept them from operating on state-regulated roads in Virginia.
“The idea that in Virginia on VDOT roads you were not allowed to have these food trucks…made absolutely no sense to me,” McAuliffe said at the bill signing ceremony.
Although this was considered by many supporters of the food truck industry as a considerable show of support, the state has left it to the local governments to regulate the mobile restaurants’ operations.
Donnelly said the food truck industry has become more popular in recent years, thanks to the rising demand for accessible and affordable food.
“I don’t like selling expensive tacos because it violates the premise of street food which is it should be accessible and it should be a good price,” he said. “It should be good and it should be an accurate portion.”
LexMex Tacos customers seem to feel the same way.
“Food like this can offer a better eating experience than some sit-down restaurants, because there’s less waiting time and I’m only paying $5 for a completely satisfying meal” a customer, Timothy Landers, 23, said after ordering a LexMex pimento cheese quesadilla at the 23rd Annual Rockbridge Beer and Wine Festival, held last month.
Prior to changes in the zoning ordinance, there were no specific rules to regulate food trucks in Lexington’s city limits. Donnelly said that the city’s expectations for food trucks were confusing because there were no written regulations for mobile restaurant operations in city limits.