A regulatory committee will urge the D.C. Council Friday to squash proposed food truck regulations, striking a blow to rules that many say would cripple mobile eateries’ presence around the District and on campus.
NBC 4 reported Thursday that the Committee on Business, Regulatory, and Consumer Affairs will recommend that the D.C. Council rejects the proposed rules, which would limit the number of food trucks in certain areas and enact a lottery system.
Vincent Orange, chair of the council’s regulatory committee, told NBC 4 that his committee will kill the proposed regulations and try to rework the most cumbersome parts. The council has until June 22 to pass or reject the vending regulations, after which members cannot amend the rules without passing emergency legislation.
The regulations, now in their fourth draft, include a requirement that food trucks can only park on sidewalks that are at least 10 feet wide. There would also be a monthly lottery to allow vendors to park in certain areas, known as “mobile vending zones,” and would require that all other vendors stay at least 500 feet away from the zone.
Violators could be fined between $1,000 and $2,000.
If passed, the regulations would allow just three trucks to park on the Foggy Bottom Campus at one time, pushing out the dozen or so vendors that often line up on the popular food truck row – H Street between 21st and 22nd streets.
Earlier this month, GW students spoke out against the proposed regulations at a seven-and-a-half-hour council hearing.
The proposed regulations have drawn the ire of food truck vendors, with many worrying how their business could survive with tighter rules. In March, Brian Arnoff, who runs the CapMac food truck, told The Hatchet that “if the regulations go through, it’s going to greatly affect our business and it might force us to close.”