City Planner C.J. Hoss speaks with the Committee on Ordinance and Rules about the growing use of food trucks in the downtown.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — City officials are looking to draft an ordinance that would effectively limit the presence of food trucks in downtown to certain designated areas.

 

The council's Committee on Ordinance and Rules, acting on a petition from Downtown Pittsfield Inc. to regulate this newly popular form of Pittsfield dining within the downtown, weighed information on Monday from City Planner C.J. Hoss as well testimony from concerned culinary residents in beginning to craft rules which would restrict mobile eateries to parking in one or more specified zones.

 

"No one's afraid of competition, we're just leveling the playing field," said Joseph Mele, owner The New Berry Place and former owner of the restaurant whose initial complaint prompted a push for regulation.

 

Mele said the business food trucks have been getting in downtown recently with only a parking permit is unfair to full-time establishments with higher commercial rents.  "We're there on North Street every day, whether it's snowing and horrible or wonderful and full of people."

 

 Local chef James Burden pointed to advantages and disadvantages face by both business models, but suggested a "mutual silver lining" in having both present to encourage a healthy downtown.   

 

"Brick and mortar restaurants are here every day, day in and day out, all year, and I think we have to recognize that," said Burden, but benefit from opportunities not available to a mobile establishment without a set infrastructure.

 

Ernie Jordan, whose Grampy's Hot Dog House cart has adorned the sidewalk of North Street for 15 years, said he also doesn't mind the competition, but suggested a need for some better organization.  

 

"It's not fair to have someone pull up right in front of you," said Jordan.  

 

Kathy Lloyd, proprietor of How We Roll, Pittsfield's first bona fide regularly seen food truck, does not object to some level of regulation.

 

"I want this to be a good conversation, and I want to help," said Lloyd.  "I want rules that are fair to everyone."

 

Lloyd said she has made every attempt to be a good neighbor to the downtown business area, and has avoiding parking in front of other eateries.  

 

By far the most scathing criticism on the issue, and on How We Roll specifically, came in absentia from the Pittsfield Suns.

 

Councilor Melissa Mazzeo, who chairs the subcommittee, read into the record a letter from team General Manager Kevin McGuire, who accused the eggroll-making food truck of "stealing" customers he said would otherwise have purchased meals from concessions who rent inside Wahconah Park on more than one game night this summer.

 

"Food and beverage is a large part of our experience at Wahconah Park and our survival is tied closely to our ability to service our fans in an efficient and affordable fashion once inside the gates," read McGuire's statement.  "This is upsetting our business partners, who pay a substantial percentage of their take to the Suns for the opportunity to operate within our gates."

 

Lloyd said their presence there had been by invitation, on a private lot owned by Berkshire Environmental Action Team, as fundraisers for the organization. They ceased setting up there partly because of the reaction received from some individuals working the stadium that she said included obscenities shouted through the fence.

 

"It turned out we weren't doing enough business to justify the aggression from over there," Lloyd told the council committee.

 

The councilors expressed mixed ideas about the process of drafting the ordinance going forward.  Mazzeo and Councilor John Krol leaned toward a simple ordinance segregating the trucks; Councilors Christopher Connell and Barry Clairmont suggested the issue raised numerous complexities that may need further discussion.

 

"I don't think this is just going to be a one-shot deal," said Connell.

 

Based on some general parameters of the discussion and public testimony, the Community Development Department will write a draft ordinance that would generally limit any such use to the northern half of the North Street strip, particularly along the block occupied by St. Joseph's Church, and may include a more significant permitting cost than the current parking fee. This draft ordinance will be presented to the Community Development Board for discussion and amending before returning to the council level.

 

"I do hope we can work it out, and find a designated area," said Mele, "because I do think it's healthy [for downtown], it does make it a little more chic, a little more trendy."