West Point discusses food trucks, ordinances

Published 9:09 am Thursday, May 31, 2018

WEST POINT — The West Point City Council held a work session Tuesday night and discussed the city’s partnership with Tree City USA, several city ordinances and rules for mobile food vendors.

The biggest news for the city is that the council is moving closer to a final decision on food trucks. It was decided on Tuesday that the certification price for the mobile food vendors will be $200 for ice cream trucks and $350 for all restaurant trucks, in addition to the business licenses, which will cost $80 plus one dollar per employee.

The council’s discussion on food trucks has been ongoing since April 24, and a vote on the matter is expected to take place at the next official council meeting on June 11.

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Another topic of discussion during the work session included minor city ordinance amendments, the first of which was creating nodes of sign space on exit six and exit two.

“We are in the process, we have been meeting for quite some time with the planning commission in work sessions to basically develop signage on the interstate,” Community Development Director Dennis Dutton said.

Two signs will be placed at each of the interstate exits to act as a means of marketing and communication for the town of West Point.

“The nodes are the city property that is just around the exit itself,” Mayor Steve Tramell said. “We don’t have control of the content of the sign but we can control the material that the sign is built with.”

An amendment to the city ordinances’ definition of “family” was made. A family is now classified as:

“An individual or two or more persons related by blood, marriage or adoption, living and cooking together as a single house-keeping unit, exclusive of household servants, or a group of not more than four persons who need not be related by blood or marriage, living, cooking, sharing in household expenses together as a single housekeeping unit in a dwelling.”

“This is very simple,” Dutton said. “We are just updating the family definition in the Zoning Ordinance to meet federal standards, what everybody else uses. This is so we satisfy the fair housing, no discrimination on that.”

The council will also be adding verbiage to the zoning ordinance that specifies off-street parking requirements for rooming or boarding houses, allowing one space per unit and two for owner-occupant or manager.

Finally, the mayor discussed the need for three appointed members of a Tree Board, as per the city’s relationship with Tree City USA.

“We need three citizens from either Troup or Harris county, doesn’t necessarily need to be a city of West Point resident,” Tramell said. “They would be advising on any issues we might have. One of the key things is, they will do the Tree City USA event every year. Hopefully we can find some people that are interested in street trees that could advise us into the future.”