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Food truck fees standardize

County complies with looser State regulations on food trucks

Monika Guendner
Park Record guest writer
Crowds gathered around a lot full of food trucks during the Park City Kimball Arts Festival.
Nan Chalat Noaker/Park Record

The Summit County Board of Health held a special meeting Friday to formally adopt State regulations governing food trucks into the Health Code.

Changes to the code come from the 2017 Utah Legislature General Session Senate Bill 250.
Although there is a general perception that Summit County does not allow food trucks, there are trucks working in the area regularly, Phil Bondurant, Summit County Health Department’s Director of Environmental Health, said. Special events, such as the Park Silly Sunday Market and Park City Kimball Arts Festival, host food trucks, and local catering companies also cater out of mobile kitchens.

S.B. 250 created consistent statewide fees in two tiers: Food truck vendors must acquire a primary tier health department food truck permit in the city or county where the majority of their business takes place. Once the business has that primary food truck permit, and valid business license, it can obtain a lower-cost secondary permit in another jurisdiction.

Other parts of the bill state: food trucks cannot be prohibited from operating near brick and mortar restaurants; separate business licenses or fees cannot be required to operate in a secondary location; the business license qualification cannot require a criminal background check, and fees for the secondary tier permit can only be enough to cover the cost of regulating food trucks.

Requirements for the primary food truck permit include an inspection by the health and fire departments and a valid business license. New trucks must also submit a plan review to meet FDA food requirements.

The bill went into effect Monday, May 8. As of Friday morning, the health department had not received any requests for either kind of permit. Primary food truck permits can run $200 to $350; secondary permits cost $100.

Before those changes, Summit County Environmental Health Department only granted food truck permits to businesses that already had a brick and mortar commissary in the county, said Bondurant. That was a requirement of roughly half the state’s health departments, he added.

The Board of Health approved a temporary ordinance Friday, in effect until the permanent language can be added into the county code.

Other areas of regulations, such as requiring event permits, land use regulations or zoning are unaffected by these changes. These regulations do not apply to non-motorized food carts or ice cream trucks.

When asked if there were any concerns about the changes, Bondurant said, “It’s still too early to tell. But there is nothing in the bill that Summit County can’t implement with success.”

Summit County


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