Horry County to consider mall properties before final reading of food truck ordinance

Allowing mobile food trucks at malls and granting them precedence even if a brick-and-mortar restaurant moves close to where they’ve established their business are the latest speed bumps Horry County Councilmen are facing after talking about regulating mobile food trucks for the last year and a half.

The county’s infrastructure and regulation committee is scheduled to review the newest proposed changes at its meeting Monday. The earliest the council could vote on the third and final reading to allow the trucks is May 19.

““I know there’s a lot of momentum to push this forward, I don’t think we’ve looked through all the possible maybes on this,” said Councilman Marion Foxworth at the council’s last meeting. “I think there’s something there that can come back and bite us.”

One of the new measures the committee will consider is allowing more than one food truck per parcel. That came at the request of Joe Perl, vice president and general manager of Myrtle Beach Mall.

“One of the things we’re doing at the mall is we’re creating a food-hall concept,” Perl said of the more than 50-acre site his company owns near S.C. 22 and US. 17 Bypass. “Along with that, we’re embracing the idea of food trucks.”

Perl said malls are continually trying to find ways for businesses to test markets before they open a long-term space inside a shopping center

“That’s the same type of thing that we’re looking for the food trucks,” Perl said. “The other thing is we’re looking at trying to build that critical mass. One food truck for the size of our facility would kind of be a needle in a haystack.”

Horry policy does permit mobile food vending, but it’s limited to push carts. Nothing with a motor is allowed except during special events.

Once the food truck concept was proposed in 2013, a special committee and county staff spent nearly a year surveying the public, developing fee rates and regulations, and crafting a plan for a one-year pilot program that would test the viability of food trucks in the county.

But in October, county council voted 9-3 against the pilot program. In its place, county leaders suggested the trucks be limited to serving prepackaged food on job sites far from brick-and-mortar restaurants. Some council members worried about the food trucks siphoning business from traditional eating places. There are more than 1,800 dining establishments along the Grand Strand.

Mary Catherine Cecil, senior planner with Horry County who has led the measure to regulate food trucks, said food trucks at malls were not brought up during the various conversations a special ad-hoc food truck committee had after meeting for about a year.

“The committee felt that more than one was covered under the special events permit, and I didn’t think they didn’t want to open it up to a large piece of property,” Cecil said. “Honestly it wasn’t looked into for malls.”

Councilmen also asked about the lack of a grandfather clause in the ordinance for mobile food trucks who agree to terms with a property owner and then, according to how the ordinance is written now, would have to move if someone opened a restaurant within 200 feet of the food truck.

Council Chairman Mark Lazarus said he did not agree with that portion of the ordinance and also wanted staff to try and work with Perl’s request.

“I think Mr. Perl brought up an excellent point looking at the size of the properties,” Lazarus said. “Obviously it’s a work in progress and we’ll get it right. We’re doing the right thing, we just have to get it right.”

Councilman Jody Prince said all of these concerns can be addressed at the re-evaluation period, which will be 180 days after the council passes the ordinance.

“We set this up to be revisited in 180 days,” Prince said. “The purpose for that is so adjustments can be made. Just keep in mind, we’re going to all have an opportunity to revisit, know and understand and have a history of what’s going on after 180 days.”

Councilman Johnny Vaught said he doesn’t want to see the county drag its feet any more than what is neccessary.

“We’ve beaten this thing to death…,” Vaught said. “We’ve got 180-day period to look at this thing, fine tune it and look at any small-time problems with it. If we keep this up, it’s going to be September. We need to let these people get out there and get in business.”

This story was originally published April 29, 2015 at 1:00 AM with the headline "Horry County to consider mall properties before final reading of food truck ordinance."