The Bowling Green City Commission voted 3-1 on a first reading Tuesday in favor of a rezoning to allow the city’s first dedicated food truck area to be built on Campbell Lane.
Commissioners approved rezoning a 0.29-acre tract on the corner of Campbell Lane and Thoroughbred Drive across from Bowling Green Junior High School from residential to general business. The rezoning application from Buckhead Kitchen & Bar would accommodate as many as four food trucks with parking for up to 13 cars. The site would have access only from Thoroughbred Drive on a road about 160 feet south of Campbell Lane.
Commissioners had numerous questions about the proposal for City-County Planning Commission Executive Director Ben Peterson. Commissioner Sue Parrigin asked what the rezoning would allow if the food truck concept didn’t work.
Peterson said the main objections to the plan when it was presented last month to the City-County Planning Commission of Warren County revolved around traffic and safety concerns, decreased property values and the proximity to the school. The planning commission voted 8-2 in favor of the rezoning.
In response to questions from commissioner Brian “Slim” Nash, Peterson said the Bowling Green Independent School System was notified of the proposed rezoning. When Nash also asked how the use could be considered compatible to surrounding development – one of the criteria the Planning Commission looks at – when there are no other designated food truck areas in the city, Peterson said compatibility was subjective and an issue the commissioners would have to decide.
The lone no vote on the rezoning, commissioner Dana Beasley-Brown, said a lack of compatibility was her reason for voting against the proposal. She said while she “personally loves food trucks” and the idea for such an enterprise, she had difficulty agreeing that such a use was compatible with the area.