Carpentersville approves mobile food vendors — with restrictions
The Carpentersville village board has decided to allow mobile food vendors — like ice cream trucks — into town, but not without several restrictions.
For one thing, people operating them will be required to pay for a $35 criminal background check the police department will conduct.
Moreover, licenses will not be issued to operators who have been convicted of a felony within the last 10 years or who need to register as a sex offender, according to the ordinance.
Operators need to pay $100 to license one truck or cart and $50 for each additional one.
As well, they aren’t allowed on the major streets in town, like Route 25, Route 31, Randall Road, Main Street, Maple Avenue, Oxford Drive, Grandview Drive and Huntley, Miller, Sleepy Hollow and Lake Marion roads.
They can’t be within 200 feet of any school while classes are in session or for one hour before or after instruction.
They are not allowed to be in any of the village parks, unless they’re there in conjunction with a special event.
The ordinance was the brainchild of Trustee Brad McFeggan, who grew up in Carpentersville and remembers eating ice cream from trucks as a child.
But at some point, the village banned them and McFeggan, 31, can’t understand why.
His goal was to bring a touch of Americana back to Carpentersville.
”Let’s give something back to the residents that they’ll enjoy and that the kids will enjoy,” he said.
By passing the ordinance that made mobile food vendors legal, the village board regulated a practice that was operating in the shadows. The ordinance also protects customers by outlining temperatures for food storage and sanitary measures vendors need to take.
It remains to be seen, though, how the village would collect on taxes generated from the vendors’ sales.
“There’s not really much you can do about that,” Village President Ed Ritter said. “It’s such a small amount of money — if they sold $1,000 worth of stuff within a summer, you’d be talking about $50 so. It’s not enough money to waste a lot of village resources trying to collect.”