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The Daily Tar Heel

Fight for food trucks: Tonight, Chapel Hill must consider the long-term benefits of food trucks

In times of economic hardship, the specter of increasing services and competition can hang over a town like a heavy fog, obscuring the long-term benefits of change. Such is the obstacle standing in food trucks’ path to Chapel Hill. At the public hearing tonight, the Town Council must look beyond this fog and clear the way for food trucks, just as the rest of Orange County has.

For months, some brick-and-mortar restaurants have feared that food trucks would increase competition at a time when business is down.

But food trucks appeal to different consumer demands and don’t directly compete with one another. Perhaps this is why one survey found the business community’s reaction has only been mixed rather than unilaterally resistant.

While the trucks would require added enforcement and other costs, the need for those services shouldn’t deprive the town of an ordinance amendment that would create opportunities for employment and tourism while fostering an entrepreneurial environment. The town can also build measures into its ordinance to rework any changes a year from now, as Hillsborough did in approving food trucks earlier this month.

Until food trucks have a place in Chapel Hill, the town will “stick out like a sore thumb,” as council member Penny Rich said, and pay the price for it.

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