New ordinance allows them 2 days a week in 2 downtown locations
Columbia could see its first food truck downtown this week after the city approved a mobile food vendor ordinance last week.
Food and beverage vendors can only operate on Mondays and Thursdays between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. with the approval of the Board of Aldermen and proper permits.
Food trucks are also limited to two spots: On Second Street west of Main Street behind the Columbia Main Street Inc. offices and in designated areas of the Pearl River Interpretive Plaza, which is behind City Hall.
James Jackson of Big Rev’s Barbecue was first in line to secure a permit Monday morning.
“It’s a big deal,” he said. “We hope to have some business downtown. We specialize in ribs, smoked chicken and sausage. We’ve been around for a couple of years, but we mainly do catering. Now we’re going to open it up to serving when we can. I’ll come down as soon as I get this processed – I’m on the way.”
Main Street Columbia Manager Nik Ingram said the ordinance is a great first step into being attractive for a larger restaurant to come in.
“In the last three years, we’ve lost several restaurants downtown. I think the hesitation is that restaurants have been disappearing and that hasn’t been encouraging for people who can have a full-fledged restaurant come downtown,” he said. “I think this is going to prove that Main Street Columbia is a very attractive place to have another resource for food. The ones that are there are wonderful, but I believe that Main Street can sustain more. We need to bring Main Street back as an attractive place for food and for vending and restaurants.”
Ingram said the food trucks will offer more options for people.
“Monday is one of the days that a lot of restaurants around Columbia aren’t even open, so having Monday as an option is huge,” he said. “Now people can come downtown to eat food versus going out of town.”
The vendor ordinance has been discussed for a considerable amount of time, dating back more than a year. City Attorney Lawrence Hahn said a couple of people asked about it during the last administration, and when the new board came on in 2017 they began looking at it again.
Ordinance No. 520 is nearly 10 pages long, setting forth the parameters of what vendors can and cannot do. It includes an annual $500 fee per food truck. To read the full ordinance, see Page 7B.
The motion for the ordinance passed unanimously May 15.
Mayor Justin McKenzie said he sees the ordinance as a way to bring people downtown.
“We’ve had two or three people inquire on it already,” he said. “We look forward to them getting kicked off down here. We gave a couple of different areas including the Interpretive Plaza, which has seating available, and on Second Street, close to Main, where it can draw attention from passersby. We think it will be a unique opportunity to bring people downtown. You’ve got to come by and see what’s going on and who is downtown. We believe that a partnership with Main Street Columbia Inc. will allow us to really promote this and promote who is downtown and what is going on.”
