AUSTIN -- Food truck fans may soon have another destination to find their favorite fusions and innovative food creations.
The Cedar Park City Council held a meeting Thursday to hear from people who want to open up food trucks in the city.
If you want to open up a food truck in Cedar Park you have two options: A peddlers permit, where you have to keep moving every 15 minutes or a seasonal vendors business permit, which expires after 60 days.
There is no option for running a food truck long-term, something Cedar Park's Andy and Mia Lan Bradford found out the hard way.
"It's kind of the Wild West when it comes to food trucks in this town, there really isn't anything that regulates them," Andy Bradford said.
When he went into city hall earlier this year to apply for a permit, he was told there wasn't an option that fit what he needed. That's troubling for Council Member Corbin Van Arsdale.
"I don't think there's was any sort of hostility of active opposition," he said. "I think it was just sort of an oversight or just kind of people never really thought of it before."
Van Arsdale is a proponent of allowing food trucks to operate within the city. Currently in Austin, and other Travis County cities, an unrestricted mobile food vendor permit costs $210, that's on top of a $125 application fee.
"A lot of people use the ones in Austin," he said. "They love them, they want a place they can bring their pet, their dog, their kids, let their kids kind of run around as opposed to just sit in a booth."
After a previous council discussion on the topic, Van Arsdale reached out to his constituents via email and received a passionate response. Within the first few hours the council member had more than 50 responses.
"My opinion is that we do support this, the added "different" vendors that would change would be nice to have in town," said Cedar Park Tourism Board Member Mathew Olguin.
However business leader Ed Travis said, "We are not Austin, and there should be a distinct and unique identification to attract people to our city."
"I got a very detailed a very passionate reaction," Van Arsdale said. "Probably 3/4 of the folks were for them, with restrictions, and the other 1/4 were adamantly opposed to them."
Although the topic is up for discussion, Van Arsdale said it's unlikely the City Council will vote on the issue Thursday night.
