Kent reexamines food trucks

KENT – A local crepe chef and food truck owner is fighting to find a place for his business in Kent despite a series of rulings in 2022 by the Planning and Zoning Commission as well as the Board of Selectmen that ostensibly banned mobile food businesses from town.

French-born, eight-year Kent resident Gregoire Pye appeared before the Board of Selectmen for a second time on March 17 to make his case for establishing a semi-permanent location in town for his food truck business, Crepe Royal.

Pye said the antique car dealership Motoriot has already offered its site as a permanent location for his business.

Pye said that, despite being a local resident with two children in the school system, the town has been inhospitable to his vision of bringing his French pancakes to the region.

“I’m allowed to go everywhere but here,” Pye told selectmen at Town Hall on Wednesday, March 18, accompanied by his wife and daughters.

Due to a series of motions made by P&Z in 2022, and subsequently by the BOS, food trucks have been understood to be prohibited from operating publicly in Kent. The two town boards spent two years shifting responsibility, with P&Z requesting that the issue be addressed through a town ordinance, while the BOS asked P&Z to handle it as a zoning matter.

Ultimately, according to past P&Z meeting minutes, the Commission moved to forward a letter to the BOS that included the following statement: “As we have previously determined, our regulations do not permit food trucks in the Town of Kent.”

The BOS responded with its own motion at its March 3, 2022 meeting, stating that upon P&Z’s counsel, “the Board of Selectmen agree and move that commercial food trucks are not allowed in the town of Kent.”

Despite the motions, Kent does not currently have an ordinance or zoning regulation explicitly governing food trucks on the books.

Speaking at last week’s meeting, Selectman Lynn Worthington indicated she felt the 2022 statements were insufficient.

“I never was happy with the way the selectmen handled that in 2022,” Worthington said. “I think it’s worth looking into,” she said, but noted that the Board will need more time to consider the issue.

Several days after Tuesday’s meeting, First Selectman Eric Epstein said he is open to all proposals, but that any change will have to be the will of the community. “Ultimately, I don’t believe it’s up to us, it’s up to the townspeople,” he said.

Epstein noted that the public testimony submitted so far has largely been in opposition to allowing food trucks in town.

Elissa Potts, owner of the Fife & Drum Restaurant & Inn, submitted a letter to the BOS arguing that food trucks are not held to the same standards as brick-and-mortar restaurants. She also argues that food trucks “are not invested in the town” the same way as permanent restaurants.

Kent Green General Manager John Casey also wrote in, stating, “to invite [food trucks] in as regular competitors to our tax-paying, closely regulated businesses is an unkind turn for our entire full-time, highly competitive restaurant sector.”

Speaking several days after the meeting, Pye said that he had no interest in overhauling the status quo, but would just like to give his business a chance to operate with stability in Kent.

“What I want is not a big change,” he said. He said Crepe Royal, which operates out of an old ambulance he bought for $1,000 and refurbished, is his pride as a way to bring his country’s cuisine to Kent.

Both the letters from the public and the selectmen themselves expressed doubts as to how the town could allow for one food truck without permitting others.

The conversation will resume at the BOS’s next regular meeting.