Authored By Alina Hunter-Grah
City Council may have made life easier for some culinary business owners with changes to city codes regarding food trucks and catering services. Council members passed an ordinance on final reading that expands the types of areas that food trucks are allowed to operate. Previously, food trucks could only operate on private property. However, the new ordinance expands that to some public property and some city streets. The ordinance passed with a 9-0 vote. City Council also approved on first reading a new definition of “catering service” in an effort to make it easier for owners of these types of businesses to apply for appropriate property zoning. The change came after some members of the Chattanooga Board of Zoning Appeals, the Chattanooga Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency and City Council discovered a hole in city code after a resident asked if a catering business could count as an office. Members of the zoning appeals board decided that it could not because the kitchen would pose unique fire hazards and require permitting that other kinds of offices would not. The new definition defines a catering business as an establishment that prepares food meant for consumption in a different location. “I believe that defining a catering service and putting the business under permitted uses addresses any future issues that might come before us,” Board of Zoning Appeals Chairman Scott McColpin said during Tuesday’s council meeting. The ordinance will need to pass a final reading during next week’s city council meeting in order to be adopted into city code. Alina Hunter-Grah is a contributing writer. She is a graduate of The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where she received a bachelor’s degree in communication with a minor in political science. Alina has over three years of journalism experience including time spent with CNN and 2nd & Church, a magazine based in Nashville, Tennessee. You can reach Alina at ahuntergrah@gmail.com or on Twitter @alinahuntergrah.