Lindsay Wells stood in a dimly lit parking lot next to a lumber company waiting expectantly for the young woman behind the window to pass her the steaming plate of Mexican food she had ordered.

“Right now it’s open and it’s near where I live,” Wells said of the reasons she was patronizing the Latin Grill food truck parked just a block off of Carrboro’s main drag. A physics teacher, she was arriving home Wednesday evening after a long day at Millbrook High School in Raleigh that featured an after-hours “back-to-school” program.

The authentic Mexican food, convenience of location, and rapid service of the mobile restaurant, she said, were what attracted her — and others — to the order line that alternately surged and receded throughout the evening hours.

Carrboro, a community that prides itself on walkability, supporting local entrepreneurs, diversity, and a coolness factor, has a thriving food truck industry with vigorous walk-up business.

Neighboring towns Chapel Hill and Hillsborough want to pop some of that food flair onto their streets. They are in the midst of developing ordinances while watching developments in Durham and Raleigh.

“I think food trucks are great. I’d love to have them,” said Chapel Hill Councilwoman Laurin Easthom. “I have a sense from the council . . . that they are interested in food trucks.”

A decision on whether to allow these popular meals on wheels could be just a few weeks away.

“We had a hearing and then we directed (Planning Department) staff to come up with some possible regulations,” Easthom said.

“There are some issues about whether or not they pay (sales) tax, or whether that tax comes back to the town,” Easthom added. “I think they’re going to work that out to make sure the town receives that tax.”

Another issue is whether Chapel Hill and Hillsborough will issue regulations welcoming food trucks, as in Carrboro and Durham, or, like Raleigh, will ban trucks from downtown and other areas with heavy pedestrian traffic — and in the vicinity of brick-and-mortar restaurants.

“We got a real hard pushback from merchants downtown” to injecting food trucks into the dining tableau, said Chapel Hill Councilman Ed Harrington, acknowledging he frequents the convoy of food trucks in Durham, where ample empty parking lots provide ready set-up for the vendors.

“There’s a minimum of 75 restaurants open at any one time in downtown Chapel Hill and there’s not any spare parking,” Harrington said of the most frequent objection to food trucks. “Aside from the (UNC) campus, two other places you could imagine food trucks is downtown and shopping centers on private property.”

Food trucks have operated at University Mall and some commercial plazas in agreement with the property owners, and during town festivals, he said.

“I support having food trucks,” Harrington said.

“We would go to Chapel Hill” if allowed, said Eladio Calletano, owner of the Latin Grill food truck whose four employees dish up house specialty chicken tamales and chicken enchiladas from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Wednesdays, and 6 p.m. to midnight Thursday through Sunday in Carrboro. “We’d go on a different day or in the morning.”

In Hillsborough, where food trucks have worked the town’s signature Hog Day festival and monthly downtown Last Fridays street celebrations, the Town Board will meet in joint session with the town’s Tourism Board on Sept. 26 to consider launching the roaming luncheonettes.

“We’ve got kind of the basic framework set up” and are moving towards a public hearing to get resident and business feedback, said Planning Director Margaret Hauth.

“Folks saw the impact they were having in Carrboro and Durham and said, ‘Hey, maybe we want to get involved with that,’ ” she said.

An ordinance could be enacted as early as next month, Hauth said, but she would prefer to wait until Jan. 1 to monitor what happens in Raleigh because, like Hillsborough, it has a food and beverage tax. Raleigh City Council voted last week to approve food trucks during specific hours on designated private property.

“I wouldn’t mind learning a few lessons from them in the first few months to get some pointers from them,” Hauth said.

The town’s Tourism Board collects a 1 percent municipal food and beverage tax, and Hauth said the town is studying how to collect that from the mobile vendors.

Food trucks have been part of the landscape in Carrboro for several years, Interim Town Manager Matt Efird said.

Food trucks must get a one-time, $75 zoning permit, obtain an inspection certification from the county Health Department, and a $25 Carrboro business privilege license.

“There are a couple of locations around town that are approved locations” for the vendors, Efird said.

“We haven’t had many complaints compared to some of the other jurisdictions around. The biggest issue we have is just making sure the food trucks are operating where their permit says they’re operating,” he said.

“Anything that draws people into town is a good thing,” Efird said. “Anything that brings people into our town to spend money is a plus.”

Dan Way is a contributor to Carolina Journal.