Enfield Brick-and-Mortar Restaurants -- Potential Text Change Regarding Food Trucks

ENFIELD BRICK-AND-MORTAR RESTAURANTS & FOOD BUSINESSES — YOUR VOICE IS NEEDED THURSDAY NIGHT."

If you own a restaurant, deli, bakery, café, ice cream shop or other brick-and-mortar food establishment, PLEASE COME TO THE P&Z MEETING THURSDAY NIGHT AND SPEAK."

The Enfield Planning & Zoning Commission meets Thursday, September 24 at 7:00 PM at Town Hall.

If you own or operate a "brick-and-mortar food business in Enfield", please pay attention to the proposed changes regarding "food trucks/mobile food vendors" and make your voice heard.

Under Enfield’s existing regulation, mobile food vendors cannot locate within "½ mile of a brick-and-mortar food establishment without permission from nearby food establishments."

The regulation also limits one-day vending at a particular private-property location to four times per year without a Planning & Zoning permit.

There is a reason those protections exist.Our brick-and-mortar businesses make a substantial, year-round investment in Enfield.

They pay rent or mortgages, property taxes, utilities, insurance, maintenance and other costs associated with maintaining a permanent location. They employ people and invest in their properties and our community.

A mobile food truck operates under a very different business model.

"If restrictions protecting existing restaurants are removed, a truck could potentially set up near an established restaurant and compete for the same customers without making the same permanent investment in that location.

"This is "not about being anti-food truck."

Food trucks can be a great addition to events and our community. This is about creating "reasonable rules that allow both food trucks AND our established restaurants to succeed."

The current regulation attempts to provide that balance. Simply removing protections for existing businesses raises legitimate questions about fairness and the impact on the businesses that have invested in Enfield for years.

"If you own a restaurant, deli, bakery, café, ice cream shop or other brick-and-mortar food establishment, PLEASE COME TO THE P&Z MEETING THURSDAY NIGHT AND SPEAK.

"Don't assume someone else will make the case for you.

Thursday, September 24. 7:00 PM"
Enfield Town Hall – Council Chambers. 820 Enfield Street

Tell the Planning & Zoning Commission what removing these restrictions could mean to "your business, your employees and your investment in Enfield."

"Food trucks have a place in Enfield. So do reasonable protections for the businesses that have put down roots here."