Food trucks will need city permits to operate in McHenry under new ordinance

Food truck operators who would like to set up in McHenry will soon find a permit application process, along with the new ordinance, on the city’s website.

The McHenry City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved the new ordinance. The form to apply for the permit now required by that ordinance will be available online soon, Deputy City Clerk Monte Johnson said.

Once the form is posted to the website, the $25 daily permit fee will also be payable online, said Ross Polerecky, director of community development.

His department was asked “by multiple individuals to look at the food truck ordinances,” Polerecky said, noting the mobile food service trucks were not a concern for McHenry for a long time. But in recent months “we are seeing them pop up in permanent spots ... leaving the trailer sitting there overnight and open back up in the morning.”

The ordinance as approved allows a food truck, with the property owner’s signed permission, to set up three out of seven days with a $25 daily permit from the city. Operators will not be allowed to leave the truck or trailer sitting overnight. They cannot “set up shop in the parking lot and be there for two or three days” without moving, Polerecky said.

“I would like to see how it works for 12 months and have it come back to us.”

—  McHenry Alderman Victor Santi, 1st Ward

It would be up to code enforcement officials to cite operators who are operating without a permit, but Police Chief John Birk said his officers would step in if no one was available from code enforcement.

The council asked Polerecky to bring the ordinance back to the council next year to see how it is working and if tweaks are needed.

“I would like to see how it works for 12 months and have it come back to us,” 1st Ward Alderman Victor Santi said.

Alderwoman Sue Miller, 7th Ward, said that for some reason she’s gotten several calls from food truck operators asking about permits in McHenry. They call themselves “food truckers,” she said.

Communicating the new ordinance to the operators is key, she added. The online form is one way to get the information out, Polerecky said, but added his office planned to hand out fliers to operators. If a food trucker sets up without a city permit, the fine is $500, he added.

Food truckers are supposed to submit sales tax to the community they’ve set up in, but there is a lag time as many submit their taxes quarterly, Director of Finance Carolyn Lynch said.

The ordinance does not affect food trucks brought into McHenry as part of a city-sponsored event.