HOUGHTON — The Houghton Planning Commission discussed a possible food truck ordinance at its meeting Tuesday, along with proposed ordinances regulating the types of plants and animals allowed within the city.

Houghton does not currently have a food truck ordinance, but requires vendors to obtain a peddlers’ permit. The city had started a draft ordinance in 2018, which had been put on the backburner after the flood, City Manager Eric Waara said.

“A food truck can pull up anywhere in town on appropriately zoned (private) property and operate … no licensing, no fee,” he said.

Waara said the city faces three main issues in regulating food trucks: whether to regulate them at all; where they should go; and whether the trucks should be licensed.

The main food truck in the city is The Forge, which primarily operates on Shelden Avenue or the Jim’s Food Mart parking lot. Others come from out of the area; some Houghton brick-and-mortar locations, such as Rodeo’s Mexican Kitchen or Camp Coffee, have also had trucks operating outside of Houghton.

The Planning Commission weighed the placemaking benefits with the potential economic costs to downtown restaurants.

Planning Commission member Dan Liebau said the changes coming to Lakeshore Drive and the city’s waterfront create opportunities to establish places for food trucks. In his experience in other places, they will often designate a mall or other place where trucks can be expected in a certain timeframe.

“You can have a food truck now,” he said. “There’s nothing to prevent them from doing that and operating on private property. So why not create space for it?”

Waara said the owner of the Subway franchise on Shelden Avenue had told him his business drops off “immeasurably” when a food truck is nearby.