The City of Soldotna updated their city codes to include mobile food vendors which are a growing attraction.
City Planner John Czarnezki said the old codes categorized food trucks, kiosks, and such into temporary use permits which were originally meant for events.
Czarnezki: “What it intended to do was truly allow mobile vendors to be mobile in nature, to allow them to have a full calendar year to operate before they have to come back and get another permit, and then refine some of the definitions that were within the existing code.”
The mobile food industry has seen growth across the U.S. based on younger generations dining out rather than cooking at home according to Czarnezki.
Czarnezki: “So different generations, different habits, the pie essentially is growing nationwide which is reflected here too. In other words, there’s more people spending more money on restaurants, bars, and food than there have in the past. The other trend that we shared was that food trucks are beginning to do some spin off into permanent type restaurants. We hope that’s the case here as well, we hope that our vendors are successful.”
He added that Jersey Subs is a great local example of where good venues can start since they began in a bus and now have three local locations.