City Council Approves Food Trucks In City

Tuesday, October 4th, 2022

Food trucks are coming to Dalton soon. At their meeting Monday night, the Mayor and Council of Dalton approved an ordinance that allows food trucks to operate in the city with several restrictions. Those restrictions include licensing and inspection requirements as well as the setting rules for the locations or types of events where the trucks will be allowed to operate. 

Ordinance 22-20 sets forth the rules for food trucks in the city. The ordinance states that food trucks will be allowed to operate at City-sponsored events such as the "Off The Rails" summer concert series at Burr Park, in geographic areas of the Dalton that the City designates as a "designated food truck area", or on private property at a commercial location. The "designated food truck areas" will be selected by appointed City staff and in general will include Parks and Recreation Department properties and the Dalton Green. Trucks operating in those areas would be required to pay a rental fee to use those areas, either a $200 fee for use throughout the year or a $50 one-time use fee.

Food truck operators would be required to obtain a license from the City of Dalton and be inspected by the Dalton Fire Department for adherence to public healthy and safety considerations. Licenses aren't required for sole-source sponsors operating on private property, such as a food truck from The Varsity in Atlanta coming to town paid for by a local business for an event. Also exempted from the licensing requirement would be any business classified as a temporary food service vendor exempted under Georgia Senate Bill 345.

Further, the food truck operator is required to have a permit from the Department of Health either here in Whitfield County or in their county of origin.  The ordinance also establishes several rules that the food truck vendors must follow, including that the trucks may only serve food and non-alcoholic beverages. The full set of regulations set forth in the text of the ordinance can be reviewed here. 

The ordinance passed Monday night by a unanimous 4-0 vote of the City Council. Mayor David Pennington typically only votes in the event of a tie.