Food trucks and flower carts on city lots? Miami Beach weighs a pilot program

Miami Beach is considering a pilot program that would let food trucks, flower carts and other small mobile businesses set up on city-owned property, according to a memo for a commission committee meeting Monday, Nov. 9.

Possible sites named in the memo include undeveloped parts of oceanfront parking lots, such as the 22nd Street lot and the lot north of the Eden Roc hotel, along with Miami Beach Drive and the West Lots in North Beach.

Right now, food trucks and similar vendors can operate on city property only through special event or pop-up permits. City zoning doesn’t list mobile businesses as an allowed use on government-owned land, and another rule requires goods to be sold from a permanent, mostly enclosed building, the memo says. A pilot would need changes to both rules.

The memo suggests favoring places with few shops nearby, underused public spaces, and spots where vendors wouldn’t compete with existing concessions or bother neighbors. Permits would spell out location, hours, fees, insurance, sanitation, generators and fire safety, and would bar amplified sound. The program could be run like the city’s artist vendor program, which the Finance Department manages.

City staff recommend that the committee back further work on the idea and bring it back later with a detailed framework. Commissioner Alex Fernandez sponsored the referral, which also goes to the Planning Board. The city says the pilot would have no fiscal impact.

The Public Safety and Neighborhood Quality of Life Committee meets at 9 a.m. Monday at City Hall, 1700 Convention Center Drive.