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In D.C., food trucks get new vending regulations

By Tim Carman,October 05, 2012

Food trucks are seen on Virginia Avenue last month in the District. (Jeffrey MacMillan/THE…)

For months, supporters of Washington’s ever-growing fleet of food trucks had heard stories of high-level meetings inside the Wilson Building. They worried that D.C. officials were huddling with representatives of the business community and the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington, who they believed wanted the city to flatten the tires of these “mobile interlopers” stealing their customers and cluttering their sidewalks.

On Friday, the D.C. Office of the City Administrator published the District’s latest batch of proposed vending regulations — the second attempt this year to update the 30-year-old rules that guide vending. And, on first look, the proposal seemed to confirm some vendors’ fears about their future in the District while giving hope to others.

The regulations, which require D.C. Council approval to become law, offer a two-tiered system in which food trucks would still be allowed to sell from any legal parking space, as long as they follow the posted time limits. But truck operators would also be able to apply for a permit for a specially designated spot that would allow them to vend from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Both options come with caveats. If truck operators continue to use legal parking spaces in the city, they must leave those spots when a meter expires or face a $100 fine per incident. Previously, the city charged $25 for the same offense; many food truck owners consider those tickets just the cost of doing business.

The District hopes the higher penalty will discourage vendors from squatting for hours in high-density spaces near restaurants such as Farragut Square or Metro Center, not far from where restaurateurs are trying to make their own living. But the parking spaces — at least those in the all-important Central Business District — must be adjacent to sidewalks that are 10 feet or wider.

If truck operators want the option of selling for longer periods, they can apply for a permit for the newly proposed Mobile Roadway Vending locations. (The permit will cost $480 a quarter, or roughly the price of feeding the meter for four hours a day, five days a week for three months.)The District Department of Transportation will be responsible for designating and assigning these spots. As proposed, there will be three trucks per Mobile Roadway Vending location, and only one location can be established on a city block (and only on one side of the block).

DDOT spokesman John Lisle said in an e-mail that the agency will work with “all stakeholders,” from food trucks to restaurant owners to Metro, to determine locations. “We will of course begin with the locations that are currently serving as popular locations for mobile vendors,” Lisle said. “If the current location is deemed to be a safe location (from a transportation perspective), under the standards spelled out in the proposed regulations, then DDOT will move to sign the location” as a Mobile Roadway Vending location. The spots will be operated on a first come, first served basis.

“I think depending on how they’re implementing [the new regulations], they could be workable,” said Doug Povich, co-owner of the Red Hook Lobster Pound D.C. truck, a founding member of the D.C. Food Truck Association and a telecommunications regulatory lawyer. “It sounds like they’re not as onerous as we thought they might be. But obviously I haven’t seen them.”

Food truck proponents had been bracing for the worst. They feared the money, power and influence of the District’s established business community would crush their still embryonic industry by severely limiting the number of vending locations in the Central Business District. The D.C. Food Truck Association had even recently decided to expand into Maryland and Virginia, with the idea that if the District essentially ran them out of town, they’d still have a presence in other jurisdictions where they could continue selling pizzas, pho, kebabs, lobster rolls and lasagnas.

But the new regulations appear to walk a fine line to keep the popular trucks on the streets while still trying to satisfy the concerns of local restaurateurs who say mobile vendors squat near their eateries and poach their customers.

“I think that there’s something for everyone to like, and there’s something for everyone to quibble with,” said Pedro Ribeiro, spokesman for Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D). “We’re trying to balance the interests of all the groups involved here.”