The Turlock City Council decided against voting on a request to repeal and replace the zoning ordinance in its entirety, which would place a ban on food trucks in Downtown Turlock.
The item, which was continued from the Nov. 18, 2014 City Council meeting, will go back through the Planning Commission before Council votes on it due to a “potential defect in the process.”
Planning Commission originally approved the food truck ban, however just barely on a 4-3 majority, in March of 2014; the zoning ordinance repeal and replacement was also approved at the same time.
The Planning Commission’s decision was however nonbinding and required approval from the Turlock City Council.
Council was going to vote on the matter on Nov. 18 of last year, however, at the time, Council chose to table the discussion to the Jan. 13 meeting, a meeting featuring a different Council than the one who originally tabled the vote.
Planning Commission, which will have two new commissioners with the appointment of Eric Gonsalves and Steven Hallam, will revisit the item on Feb. 5.
“We have identified a potential defect in the process that we believe, out of an abundance of caution, is best resolved by referring the matter back to the Planning Commission for the Feb. 5 meeting," said Turlock Mayor Gary Soiseth.
The zoning ordinance repeal was largely uncontroversial at the time of the Planning Commission’s vote, however the ban on food trucks was the main topic of disagreement amongst commissioners.
Councilmembers did however have some issues with the zoning ordinance repeal in its current state. Councilmember Bill DeHart said he had some concerns with what was in the previous ordinance and what has been changed.
“I ended up having more questions than answers,” said DeHart.
DeHart requested staff create a version of the ordinance that featured charts stating the new and old or a strikeout version of the report.
Director of Development Services and City Engineer Mike Pitcock said that staff is working on a new version of the item to include strike and replace version of the document.
“The idea behind this is a very comprehensive review and modification of that zoning ordinance, so the idea was to basically start anew, but unfortunately what that does to you is it makes it very difficult to understand exactly what we’ve changed,” said Pitcock.
The Planning Commission will vote on the item on Feb. 5; if the zoning ordinance repeal and replacement is approved, it will go in front of City Council at at later date.
I am not a big food truck user but i have eaten there. But alliwing the city government to pick winners and loosers that are not safety issues is wrong. Especially when the zoning laws are used. Look at what we got when the walmart super store wad denied. We now have a grocery store on 4 corners on geer rd. I can assure you at least one will go. Some how the citizens must wrest this power from government.
Last time the taco truck issue came to the planning commission the Downtown Association was against it. Mostly because it would harm Matt Swansons many downtown businesses. Now the mayor who took tens of thousands of $$$ from Swanson during the campaign just appointed Gonzales to the Planning commission. Oh wait, is this the same Gonzales who chairs the Downtown Association? How do you think he will vote? And how does one think Gary will vote? Wake up people! This is what is wrong with government today.