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By Josh Perry
Hometown Weekly Staff
On Tuesday, March 8, the Needham Board of Selectmen held a public hearing concerning the town’s food truck regulations, which have been tightened in recent years.
Residents and several food truck owners spoke at the meeting about the desire to bring those trucks into the downtown area to bring more affordable and quick lunch and dinner options to the community.
According to Doug Fox, who presented an online survey with more than 400 responses to the selectmen, the food trucks would not take away from the restaurants in Needham but add to the foot traffic in the downtown and eventually lead to more patrons for the current establishments.
“It’s completely different use cases,” said Fox a few days after the hearing. “Fast casual restaurants aren’t coming to Needham. We have great, high-end restaurants and pizza and sub shops and no options in between.”
At the meeting, Fox presented a survey that demonstrated there is a desire among residents to bring food truck options to the downtown. He said that 446 residents sent in responses, which he called “statistically significant,” and more than 80 percent were in favor of a change in regulations.
The results of the survey showed a desire to bring the trucks to the downtown and even to give up several of the metered parking spaces in downtown Needham to to give the trucks room to park.
Currently, food trucks are only allowed at locations away from the downtown, such as at the business park or at fields and recreation areas.
During the hearing, the selectmen spoke out against the food trucks and were joined in opposition to a change by the Newton-Needham Chamber of Commerce, the Needham Business Association, the Town of Needham’s Economic Development Director Devra Bailin and a number of restaurant owners who were in attendance.
The common theme from the opponents of a change was the need to support established restaurants. Fox admitted that he was disappointed more residents were not in attendance to voice their opinions but that he was not surprised to see the organized response from the business owners.
Although the hearing did not go the way that he had hoped, Fox is bringing a warrant to the Annual Town Meeting in May and will present his case to Town Meeting voters. The Board of Selectmen will be among those presenting in opposition.
He has been told that his warrant does not stand a chance of passing, but Fox said that he is not deterred.
“It will be spoken against by all the power groups,” he said, “but it’s worth trying to see it through. I’d rather do the right thing and lose than not try.”
Josh Perry is an Editor at Hometown Weekly. He can be reached at news@hometownweekly.net and followed on Twitter at @Josh_Perry10.
