Oakmont Council passes food truck ordinances
A pair of ordinances regulating food truck operations in Oakmont passed without a peep after no residents attended Tuesday’s public hearings.
The need for the ordinances arose after multiple borough businesses that don’t serve food contacted borough officials about hiring food trucks for special events.. There were no regulations in place.
Both ordinances give the borough, as well as police officers, more control over what food trucks can and can’t do while in Oakmont.
“When we initially drafted this food truck ordinance, we drafted it entirely as its own ordinance,” borough solicitor Jacob Leyland said.
He said the planning commission approved the orignal ordinance, as did the council, and the draft was sent to Allegheny County Department of Economic Development. County officials recommended the ordiance be split into two, with one denoting zoning requirements and the other defining rules and regulations for operation.
A “non-zoning” ordinance was passed to establish a definition of a “mobile food facility” (MFF) and an “MFF operator,” Leyland said. The ordinance permits trucks to operate, but stipulates a permit has to be obtained from the borough by the truck’s owner.
A permit is good for one year under the condition the food truck owner notifies the borough where they will be conducting business. A food truck operator also will have to get approval from borough police Chief Michael Ford or a designated officer if the truck will be on a roadway or a “cartway,” the ordinance states.
The second ordinance, introduced as a zoning ordinance, covers the regulations in each of the borough’s zoning districts. The ordinance added a section to an already existing zoning chapter to define a list of rules and regulations about food truck operations in different zoning districts within the borough.
The permit allows for 12 hours of operation, and trucks can be in commercial and industrial zoning districts from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. Food trucks can operate in residential districts between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m.
“This specifically deals with zoning,” Leyland said.
Both ordinances passed unanimously.
Haley Daugherty is a TribLive reporter covering local politics, feature stories and Allegheny County news. A native of Pittsburgh, she lived in Alabama for six years. She joined the Trib in 2022 after graduating from Chatham University. She can be reached at hdaugherty@triblive.com.
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