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Mexico Beach debates regulation of food trucks amidst growth

MEXICO BEACH, Fla. (WMBB) – After Hurricane Michael devastated Mexico Beach, food trucks served residents during the time of recovery. And seven years later, they continue to dominate the local dining landscape.

On Tuesday, Mexico Beach Councilwoman Linda Hamilton raised concerns about the city’s growing number of food trucks.

There are now about seven food trucks in Mexico Beach. Hamilton wants to regulate the vendors to create space for other businesses.

“In our city of three miles long, the concern is the more food trucks we get, the less likely that restaurants will come because of that competition. They were originally decided upon after the storm because of so much destruction, we had no restaurants left, and that was like, to fill in for that,” Hamilton said.

But food truck owners say restaurant start-up costs on Mexico Beaches beach front property make that initiative impractical.

“The transition into the food truck was born out of many things: the lack of employees around here, the lack of business around here, there’s just not enough business in this town just yet. Yeah, it’s coming back up. There are lots of buildings and houses being built, but there’s still not enough full-time going out to dinner for people in this town to keep this many restaurants going. It fills the void that can’t economically and feasibly be filled any other way, there’s not any commercial property here for sale for someone to come in and buy and build,” Killer Seafood Owner & Chef Michael Scoggins said.

City officials cannot legally limit the number of food trucks in the area. They can only manage where they go and how they operate.

“Some places do have picnic tables, some do not. Most of them do. So, you know, we need to establish what condition they’re in, how far they are from the property lines, to make sure there’s a good ingress and egress. Then there’s always the sanitation issue,” Mexico Beach Interim City Administrator Mell Smigielski said.

Officials also want to better manage parking around the food trucks. Now they’re encouraging public feedback on the current food truck scene.

Council members said they’ll use recommendations to create uniform regulations for local food trucks.

Officials said there is a potential eighth food truck coming to Mexico Beach. But they’re still trying to increase the number of sit-down restaurants in the city.

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