Horry County to consider amended mobile food truck ordinance

Horry County Council will discuss allowing prepackaged foods in mobile carts at the start of next year, despite pleas by those who drafted the initial ordinance to re-consider full-service food trucks.

Some critics even went as far as to call the new ordinance one that essentially approves “mobile vending machines.”

The county’s infrastructure and regulation committee decided to send the amended ordinance to full council without a recommendation to allow council members to discuss it objectively, said Carl Schwartzkopf, chairman of the infrastructure and regulation committee.

“In as much as members of council really expressed concern about this issue, my recommendation is that we forward to county council without recommendation and let members of council express their opinion at next council meeting,” Schwartzkopf said.

In October, Horry County Council voted 9-3 against a one-year mobile food vending pilot program after months of work surveying the public, perfecting distance requirements and determining what would be allowed for the mobile vendors.

In 2010, the county adopted an ordinance that allows for smaller push carts, like hot dog stands. It also allows for bigger mobile food trucks during special events. There are more than 1,800 restaurants weaved through a 60-mile stretch along the Grand Strand.

County planning officials and a Mobile Food Truck Vending Ad Hoc committee worked since late last year to hash out details of a pilot program that would have opened the area to up to 50 mobile food vendors.

The new proposal would allow for packaged foods to be sold, much like sandwiches sold at convenience stores that are in vacuum-sealed clear packaging.

Steve Neese, chairman of the ad-hoc committee and a member of the county’s planning commission, said the committee pooled the best of ordinances from around the nation, surveyed local business owners and was always open to suggestions from the public.

“A year ago, you got this issue right,” Neese said. “A group of citizens came to you and said we have a new business format that’s sweeping the country... It is new and probably among the top five business models in the country....I think we were a little short and a little quick at dismissing it. This issue is just not going to go away... It is a little disturbing to see how much effort went into this for it to be dismissed without it going to second reading.”

Karl Moser, the mobile food truck owner who prompted the county to discuss the original ordinance, was on the ad-hoc committee as well, and said the new proposal is not as juicy as the original.

“If you only want to put pre-packaged sandwiches out there, you’re turning the whole thing into mobile vending machines,” Moser said. “We went above and beyond what you all asked. We wanted to put food trucks out there that are safe for the public, and to reduce it down to a mobile vending truck, that’s pretty sad.”

Neese said the original mobile food truck ordinance is “pro small business” ordinance and he wants the council to vote publicly on where its members stand.

“The citizens of Horry County deserve to know which ones are pro-small business and which ones are not,” Neese said.

This story was originally published December 15, 2014 at 5:03 PM with the headline "Horry County to consider amended mobile food truck ordinance."