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Houghton planners mull food trucks, plants, animals

HOUGHTON — The Houghton Planning Commission discussed a possible food truck ordinance at its meeting Tuesday, along with proposed ordinances regulating the types of plants and animals allowed within the city.

Houghton does not currently have a food truck ordinance, but requires vendors to obtain a peddlers’ permit. The city had started a draft ordinance in 2018, which had been put on the backburner after the flood, City Manager Eric Waara said.

“A food truck can pull up anywhere in town on appropriately zoned (private) property and operate … no licensing, no fee,” he said.

Waara said the city faces three main issues in regulating food trucks: whether to regulate them at all; where they should go; and whether the trucks should be licensed.

The main food truck in the city is The Forge, which primarily operates on Shelden Avenue or the Jim’s Food Mart parking lot. Others come from out of the area; some Houghton brick-and-mortar locations, such as Rodeo’s Mexican Kitchen or Camp Coffee, have also had trucks operating outside of Houghton.

The Planning Commission weighed the placemaking benefits with the potential economic costs to downtown restaurants.

Planning Commission member Dan Liebau said the changes coming to Lakeshore Drive and the city’s waterfront create opportunities to establish places for food trucks. In his experience in other places, they will often designate a mall or other place where trucks can be expected in a certain timeframe.

“You can have a food truck now,” he said. “There’s nothing to prevent them from doing that and operating on private property. So why not create space for it?”

Waara said the owner of the Subway franchise on Shelden Avenue had told him his business drops off “immeasurably” when a food truck is nearby.

Tom Romps, owner of the Downtowner, said he worried visitors who could get food on the waterfront would be less inclined to go to the rest of the downtown. He also objected to the discrepancy between fees paid by food tucks and brick-and-mortar sites.

“To have a truck parked down there and pay a $200 fee, when we’re paying $10 to $12,000 a year in taxes. It doesn’t quite seem fair as a businessperson,” he said.

Planning Commission member Brad Baltensperger said in his experience, food trucks had been set up semi-permanently next to brew pubs without kitchens, where they enjoyed a symbiotic relationship.

The 2018 draft ordinance would keep trucks within business or industrial zoning districts or the city’s three main parks.

They would also not be able to park within 150 feet of the entrance to a brick-and-mortar restaurant during the restaurant’s business hours.

Other restrictions included a licensing fee and a requirement that they not operate outside of 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Regarding an animal ordinance, the city has little on the books, except regulations against cruelty to birds, Waara said. Numerous people have asked about raising goats, chickens or other animals within the city, making regulation a good idea, Waara said.

“I’ve told people to talk to your neighbors, don’t get a rooster, and this is the last conversation I want to have about it,” he said. “If your neighbors think it’s a bad idea, probably don’t do it.”

The draft ordinance presented to the planning commission would allow people to keep domestic pets, but bar exotic animals and dangerous insects within the city.

A proposed ordinance on nuisances would require owners to remove dead trees or broken limbs and prohibit the growing of “noxious weeds and wild growths” on property, including ragweed and crabgrass. Milkweed, which had been on the list, is being removed because of its usefulness in pollinator gardens.

Planning Commissioner member Kristine Bradof is also a member of Keweenaw Wild Ones, a group encouraging landscaping with native plants.

She said the group is preparing an advisory list of trees and other plants that will work in different conditions.

Waara said the nuisance ordinance was also prompted by a desire to prevent people from using shipping containers and semitrucks as accessory buildings on their properties.

The planning commission did not vote on any of the issues. But members reached an informal consensus that city staff should continue talks on all three issues and discuss them with the council.

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