The Food Truck Bazaar (About, Twitter, Facebook) is travelling to Melbourne, New Smyrna Beach, Ivanhoe Village and Deland this weekend. Try and catch one of these fun events for some great food from the Central Florida food truck scene.

The Food Truck Bazaar (About, Twitter, Facebook) is a large-scale traveling food truck event that travels from city to city in Central Florida each month bringing with it a nighttime foodie heaven for three hours each stop. On average, it goes to 12+ towns per month. Its the original food truck event in Central Florida and was created by TheDailyCity.com! Born March 2011, The Food Truck Bazaar has been produced 70+ times in over fifteen Central Florida towns, at three universities and at one theme park.

By Richard Conn | News-JournalOnline.com

Mark Rakowski, a local land use consultant, initially asked in July that the city’s land development regulations be amended so that only existing restaurant owners be allowed to also operate up to two food trucks or trailers.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH — A proposal to allow food trucks to permanently set up shop in the city — one that was shot down by the Planning and Zoning Board last month — will be heard Tuesday night by the City Commission.

Mark Rakowski, a local land use consultant, initially asked in July that the city’s land development regulations be amended so that only existing restaurant owners be allowed to also operate up to two food trucks or trailers.

Under that original proposal, the mobile vendors would be prohibited in the Canal Street, Flagler Avenue and East Third Avenue business districts, but allowed in other commercial areas. After getting varying feedback from Planning and Zoning Board members over the course of two meetings, the proposal was revamped.

Some board members said that out of fairness and the spirit of competition, the food trucks would have to be allowed in every commercial district.

The latest proposal, one that City Commission will consider during the first of two public hearings on the matter, would eliminate a requirement for a food truck operator to already own a restaurant in the city and would not restrict the number of food trucks someone could own and operate.

The Planning and Zoning Board unanimously gave the proposal an unfavorable recommendation on Sept. 10.

“I think the biggest issue the board grappled with was, how do you allow it in some areas and not in others?” Planning Manager Gail Henrikson said Monday.

Henrikson has also recommended that the proposal be denied.

Rakowski made the request on behalf of two restaurant owners — Cafe Heavenly on Flagler Avenue and Sea Vista Tiki Bar on Atlantic Avenue — who wanted to open food trucks to supplement their businesses.

Rakowski said Monday he would probably ask the City Commission to consider something closer to the original proposal he made back in July.

“It kind of went around in circles a little bit on this thing,” he said.

That would include bringing back the prohibition for mobile vendors on Flagler Avenue, Canal Street and Third Avenue. Those areas were left out of the Rakowski’s original request after he received mixed reviews from business and restaurant owners.

“We don’t have a problem with eliminating those three areas,” Rakowski said.

Some local restaurant operators said at previous Planning and Zoning Board meetings that letting food trucks set up shop permanently wasn’t fair to longtime business owners who had made bricks and mortar investments in the community.

The proposal also includes a sunset clause that would remove the regulation allowing food trucks after two years unless the City Commission agrees to extend it or readopt it.

“Let’s give it a shot; Everybody is what-ifing this thing to death,” Rakowski said. “Let’s try it for a couple of years and if it doesn’t work out fine. We don’t have to readopt it.”

http://www.news-journalonline.com/article/20121015/NEWS/310159979?Title=Will-NSB-give-food-trucks-a-spin-this-time-

By Richard Conn | News-JournalOnline.com

NEW SMYRNA BEACH — The Planning and Zoning Board on Monday unanimously shot down a proposal that would have allowed food trucks to permanently set up shop in the city.