Northampton Board of Supervisors discusses Town Edge zoning, existing subdivisions, and food trucks

By Ava Canade

The Northampton County Board of Supervisors discussed town edge zoning, the development of food truck regulations, and expanding housing options within existing subdivisions at their meeting on June 22nd, 2025 at 5 P.M. 

County Administrator Charles Kolakowski presented suggestions on each topic to the Board at the meeting. 

In regards to town edge zoning, Kolakowski discussed the need for adjusting town edge zoning and regulations in order to create more affordable workforce housing throughout the county. He suggested increasing town edge zoning to include existing subdivisions around towns in order to allow them to accommodate more housing options such as duplexes or small apartment buildings. 

Board Chairman John Coker agreed with Kolakowski’s suggestion and emphasized that the zoning would continue to keep development around towns.

“Maybe we want to increase the town edge to include some of these subdivisions,” Coker said. “I mean we’re not talking about chopping up big fields and turning those into big subdivisions. Everyone likes the way it is here, we love our nature and we want to keep it that way.”

Kolakowski focused on the possibility of expanding zoning possibilities within existing subdivisions to create the opportunity for developers to propose creating small apartment buildings, duplexes, and/or cluster housing for affordable workforce housing.

He also emphasized that the county should become more flexible in hearing ideas and proposals from developers on how to create more affordable housing throughout the county. Kolakowski and the Board agreed that development should remain around town edge areas or within towns themselves instead of parceling farmland throughout the county. 

Kolakowski then discussed the lack of guidelines around food trucks in Northampton County. He said food trucks had become popular with customers and entrepreneurs alike.

He suggested that a set of regulations should be drafted that continues to give food truck operators freedom while allowing the County to make sure they do not set up in improper locations such as residential neighborhoods or on the side of Route 13 where there are no parking lots. 

Supervisor Mapp pushed back against a regulation regarding vehicle requirements that would not allow for operators to be able to build their own truck or modify an existing one. Kolakowski emphasized that this could be amended and many of the regulations were suggestions. 

A set of suggested regulations will be presented at the Board’s next meeting after reconsideration.