The right recipe for enticing food trucks into town has eluded Langley.

Just over a month after approving the city’s first-ever request for proposals to see what food truck vendors would offer to set up in one of two public spaces, the city’s community planning director recommended a change of course at Monday’s city council meeting. So far, Langley has yet to see any applications for a mobile food vendor license.

“To my great disappointment, we didn’t get a single response,” Director of Community Planning Michael Davolio said to the council Monday.

Langley crafted the rules and permit process in hopes of creating an environment to foster new business. The idea, Mayor Fred McCarthy said in a phone interview Monday, was to provide other places for visitors to eat during the busy tourist season between Memorial Day and Labor Day, late May to early September. As input was shared in the ordinance creation, however, the city council heeded the direction of businesses (via the Langley Main Street Association) and set seasonal limits and an exclusion during Choochokam Arts Festival in July.

Chris Vulk, a chef who plans to open a food truck, said he had not applied because he doesn’t have a truck yet.

“[Like] most other people I feel like the ordinance was written to favor the other brick-and-mortar businesses, since they probably feel like a food truck will be pretty big competition for them,” he wrote in an email Monday afternoon. “In reality, competition is good for business. It helps keep a business owner on their toes to keep up with what the people want.”

In Davolio’s memo to the mayor and the city council, he added that the lack of proposals came with “some disappointment.” Creating the request for proposals was a way for the city to “ensure equal treatment in the event that we received more proposals than we had spaces to offer.” His recommendation to accept applications on a first-come, first served basis and to lease the spaces on a set, to-be-determined fee, received unanimous, unofficial support. The proposal did not require any action from the council, which did not discuss the changes or the lack of applications.

McCarthy supported Davolio and the proposal, saying that the city never wanted to create competition with existing restaurants. The original ordinance was prompted by inquiries from prospective food truck owners and the desire to add new businesses without new and direct competition, he said.

“We think that we’re a fairly small market here, so it’s got to be the right person who sees this as a desirable location,” McCarthy said in a phone interview.

The food truck season begins May 21 in Langley. Applications are being accepted without the additional step of proposing an exchange for use of the public space. Davolio will establish a set fee for use of the locations on Second Street in front of Langley Park and on First Street in front of Hladky Park, commonly called Whale Bell Park.

“It sounded like an innovative economic development effort … Obviously we’d like to see it get tried here,” McCarthy said.