Cookeville City Amends Mobile Food Vendors Ordinance

The Cookeville City Council passed an ordinance to simplify food truck requirements during Thursday’s city council meeting.

The council amended the ordinance by eliminating a $50 permit renewal fee and implementing a $250 fee each year.

The Cookeville City Council passed the revised food truck ordinance during the Thursday meeting.

Councilman Mark Miller said the original proposed ordinance did not account for food trucks registered outside of the city.

“Right now out-of-domiciled food trucks that come from out of the city, they don’t pay sales tax to the city limits of Cookeville. They go wherever they are domiciled out,” Miller said. “So if they are domiciled out of Nashville, all that sales tax revenue does directly back to Nashville and it doesn’t stay here. We were putting some protections in place to make sure that we have some revenue that stays in Cookeville.”

Councilman Eric Walker voted against the amendment.

“Having food trucks will help improve our culture and improve our city and encourage business to start up in our town,” Walker said. “That being said, I think with that possibility to approve to have that permit renewed at $50 is a huge benefit to somebody that is local. And a $250 permit is much higher than the existing $15 business license that most other businesses pay.”

The ordinance removed the requirement to provide references and to provide the last two cities or towns where the truck transacted business.

The ordinance also removed the 250 feet operating distance from any restaurant requirement.