Food Truck Parking Spots Proposed

New York City's food trucks would face tighter restrictions under a new bill proposed by City Councilman Dan Garodnick.  The bill would create up to 450 "food truck zones."  The parking spots would be the only places they could legally serve food. 

Garodnick said many food trucks are now serving in spots with parking meters. 

"It is, under existing law today, not legal to do that.  And a lot of them are getting tickets and sometimes are even having their trucks towed away in the middle of busy points of business for them."

He said the proposal is also a win for food truck fans.

"This will allow for more certainty and more reliability for consumers to know that their favorite food truck is not simply going to get towed away, but rather they have a legal right to be present where they are present."

Currently, the city's 300-plus food trucks can set-up anywhere as long as they follow parking laws.

UPDATE from David Weber, President, NYC Food Truck Association.

"The current regulations surrounding food truck street parking are broken.  While we welcome the opportunity to have a dialogue about the rules surrounding food truck parking we see this bill as the start of a discussion.  In general part of what makes NYC vending so dynamic and responsive to the needs of New Yorkers is that it is a flexible, principles-based system.  Allocating specific spots for trucks would be a substantial departure from the history and tradition of NYC street vending.  While allocating specific food truck vending locations has worked well in some municipalities like Boston, it has gone extremely poorly in places like Chicago and Washington DC.  There are many unanswered questions about where these parking spots would be situated, the political process by which spots might be added or removed, how these spots would be allocated to vendors, and how these regulations would be enforced.  We look forward to working through these issues to come up with a system that works for all the stakeholders of NYC streets, especially New Yorkers."