Food Trucks May Soon Need Parking Permits

LOS ANGELES (KNX 1070) — Popular food trucks may soon need parking permits as a result of a crackdown by the city of Los Angeles.

KNX 1070's Bill Cooper Reports

"You can put a bunch of trucks in a given area and they'll be lots of people there to enjoy the food. It works easily when it's in an industrial areas and it's not impacting a brick-and-mortar restaurant and there's also issues of parking and using more than one space and not paying and ticket issues," Councilman Bill Rosendahl, Chair of the Transportation Committee, said.

Months ago, Councilman Tom LaBonge started to receive complaints about the trucks hogging prime metered parking spots on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile.

"I want to see a creation of a food truck zone. I don't want them near tri-lights, which is the traffic signal. I don't want them near crosswalks, which prevents visibility. But I think we can work it out and we can work with everybody to find solutions," LaBonge said.

Other council members are getting complaints now, like Westside Councilman Paul Koretz,

"We don't see 15 or 20 vehicles back-to-back in a certain area. But we have a couple spots where two or three of them are showing up. They are parking in a space where they don't fit in so they should get cited. And they are actually blocking a brick-and-mortar restaurant so they are not visible," Koretz said.

The City Attorney is expected to come back to the council within 90 days with a proposed ordinance.