AMY OEHLERS
ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER
ANOKA (POPULATION 17,990)

Currently, the City of Anoka only allows food trucks to operate in residential districts, with a few exceptions. This regulation was put in place to allow ice cream trucks to operate in residential neighborhoods, but not allow them to operate in our downtown area, due to the number of restaurants downtown.

In the past, the City Council has backed local restaurants that have raised concerns over allowing food trucks to operate in our downtown area. Many of these businesses expressed concern that having food trucks outside of their establishment would have a negative economic impact on them. Our City Council agreed with this concern and felt it was the city’s responsibility to support our brick-and-mortar businesses that pay taxes to the city.

There are some exceptions to this regulation. We do allow our brewery/taproom to operate a food truck directly outside its business on a limited basis (two times per week, with limited hours), which is common throughout the state. We first tested this out in 2019 and it has been successful, and the city has not received any complaints or concerns from the public or other downtown businesses. Our brewery also supports the downtown restaurants by allowing patrons to order food for delivery, which they are allowed to consume within the brewery.

Another exception is that we allow food trucks if they are part of city licensed special events, or city sponsored events. The event sponsors are responsible for regulating and choosing what food trucks participate in their event. The food trucks may only operate in the specified special event area. Food trucks are required to obtain a license from Anoka County.

The city does have an annual Food Truck Festival in the summer held in our downtown. The sponsor of this event is the Minnesota Food Truck Association. This has been a very successful event for the sponsor, the city, and the public. It is very well attended and people look forward to it occurring each year. Our downtown restaurants support this Food Truck Festival because of the amount of people that it draws to our city.

Food trucks are becoming very popular, so a future discussion is slated with the City Council on whether our current regulations should be amended.

CLINTON ROGERS
CITY ADMINISTRATOR
JANESVILLE (POPULATION 2,502)

The City of Janesville began looking into what other cities were doing regarding the regulation of food trucks after receiving inquiries and hearing interest from the community. As a result, the city has been issuing licenses for food trucks and mobile food vendors for the past four years.

A license is required for all vendors selling their product in a public right-of-way or other public property. Vendors on private property taking part in a private event are not required to obtain a city license. We are glad we created this licensing process and have found that food trucks are very popular with residents of all age groups.

The application process is pretty simple. It is a four-page document asking for vendor and vehicle information, proof of applicable Minnesota Department of Health and county health certificates, and proof of insurance. It also asks for the dates and locations with a “checklist” of regulations for the applicant to sign-off on. Our ordinance does not specify any certain hours, so they can go into the evening if they choose.

Our police chief conducts a background check on all those involved with the business. The background check fee is $15 and lasts for one year. In addition to the background check, the cost for the license is $25 a day. Vendors can also pay $300 for an annual license if they plan to regularly conduct their business in Janesville.

We do not charge a daily fee during our town celebration, Hay Daze. Food trucks and vendors are very popular during that weekend as they are scattered along Main Street near the carnival rides and midway entertainment. People are lined up at the food vendors throughout the weekend.

We also offer food trucks during special events at the city-owned golf course, which has been well received. And some churches take advantage of them during their annual celebrations.

We plan to offer something new in 2024. We have scheduled six music events with local bands at Veterans Memorial Park. Food vendors are encouraged to take part in these events as well.