HADLEY — At an ice cream stand situated at the edge of farm fields, in proximity to the shopping malls and the Norwottuck Rail Trail, bands play acoustic music most weekends during the spring, summer and fall, often accompanied by a food truck regularly parked on the site.

The growing activity at the Maple Valley’s Scoop at the Silos, and the increasing popularity of food trucks participating at weekly and annual events, is prompting the Planning Board to consider writing new regulations for these vehicles so they are covered by town zoning.

“We're trying to address more the so-called permanent food trucks as opposed to someone who brings something in for the day or the weekend for a festival,” Chairman James Makismoksi said at the March 7 meeting.

Board Clerk William Dwyer said the idea is to have Town Meeting consider bylaws that will cover any food trucks and other similar food vendors that are not fixed in place as brick-and-mortar restaurants.

“If it can be moved, it falls under this bylaw,” Dwyer said.

Dwyer said amending the table of uses to allow food trucks, and having them defined, might be all that is needed on the zoning end. Food trucks would still have to face a series of inspections related to health and fire safety.

The need to focus on food trucks “across the board,” Dwyer said, comes as they have proliferated at events including the annual Asparagus Festival on the West Street common and the Country in the Country at the Young Men’s Club.

At the meeting, Bruce Jenks, who runs the Maple Valley’s Scoop at the Silos, explained that his decision to bring in El Durango Taco Truck last summer was to offer something different from the nearby fast food and sit-down restaurants. The food truck, he said, has a full Ansul fire suppression system.

Jenks offered his expertise on the topic. He has his own food truck registered in Massachusetts and insured through the farm, but he has generally only brought it to events where there are other food trucks, choosing to focus on the ice cream sales at Scoops from a permanent building.

When he goes out of town, to events in Northampton, for instance, he said he pays a fee for an inspection.

“We never have a review other than the Board of Health,” Jenks said, noting that an inspection is done in advance for health matters, while the fire department inspection is usually done the day of an event.

Hadley’s health agent Ben Lipham said food trucks in most towns and cities prompt many municipal departments to be involved in permitting on the spot. In Hadley, the inspection fee for food trucks is rising from $100 to $200 this year.

The food trucks bylaw, as well as another that could explicitly limit homes in Hadley to being rented to four unrelated housemates, similar to a bylaw already in place in Amherst, are being drafted in advance of Town Meeting.

Meanwhile, the board voted unanimously to recommend that the Select Board approve a live entertainment license for Jenks’ business so the site can have speakers and music each week, and parking for up to 60 cars, from 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. each Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

This broadens the license approved last June, when the board gave him similar permission on Saturdays and Sundays from 2 to 6 p.m. Though the live music had been going on during previous two summers, it had not been licensed.

]]>