Food trucks and "pop-up" vendors have been a growing phenomenon in many cities in recent years.
An expected attempt by New Orleans City Council President Stacy Head to liberalize city regulations for food trucks is drawing opposition even before Head formally presents her proposals. Head has indicated she will introduce an ordinance to ease restrictions on food trucks at Thursday's council meeting. The council could not vote on the issue until next month at the earliest.
The ordinance is expected to propose expanding the area where food trucks can operate, increasing the total number of permits for such trucks and allowing them to stay longer in one spot.
The prospect that food trucks might for the first time be permitted to operate in the Central Business District and to sell their wares near regular restaurants apparently is raising the ire of some restaurateurs.
Head reportedly wants to double the number of food truck permits from 100 to 200, increase the time the trucks can park in one spot from 45 minutes to four hours and allow them into parts of the CBD. She is expected also to propose reducing the required buffer zone around restaurants from 600 feet to as little as 50 feet.
Rachel Billow of the New Orleans Food Truck Coalition, a network of food truck operators, told the Baton Rouge Advocate there has been a positive response from many restaurants to the idea of loosening the existing regulations. She said the goal is to bring dining options to neighborhoods that lack them and to promote a form of small business that requires little overhead to start.
However, an online petition opposing Head's expected proposals claimed to have gathered almost 200 signatures by Wednesday afternoon. The petition, begun by Reuben Laws, warns that if Head's ordinance passes, "restaurant owners in the CBD are about to have their sales invaded on by the food truck industry."Saying that restaurant owners "have made great investments in their product and have worked hard to build a following of customers in their area," it concludes: "To think that a food truck can soon park 50 feet from our doors and sell food during peek hours of business for 4 hours is truly concerning!!!!! This legislation should be stopped immediately!!!!!!!"
How many of those signing the petition own or work at New Orleans restaurants was not clear.
Food trucks and "pop-up" vendors have been a growing phenomenon in many cities in recent years. In 2011, close to 3,000 people bought tickets to New Orleans' inaugural Street Fare Derby at the Fair Grounds to showcase and celebrate the growing local trend of mobile food options.
They sampled cuisine ranging from black bean, plantain and coconut rice empanadas to bacon-and-Havarti grilled-cheese sandwiches, white-truffle Parmesan fries and cake-batter snow-balls. The one-day event was created by NOLAfoodtrucks.com, a website that billed itself as "a practical guide to New Orleans street eats."