City to Consider Food Truck Law Changes Thursday

Food trucks could soon be allowed to set up shop on Elk Grove streets for up to three hours at a time, and as late as 10 p.m.

The Elk Grove Planning Commission on Thursday will discuss proposed changes to the city's laws governing when and where mobile food vendors can sell. The trucks are currently limited to selling in 15-minute increments in Elk Grove, and have to pack up at 2 p.m.

The , but asked city staff to add, among other things, rules to keep food trucks 350 feet away from existing brick-and-mortar restaurants.

The city wouldn't be allowed to make a rule like that, according to a staff report for Thursday's meeting.

"The City is free to impose parking regulations that affect all vehicles equally," the staff report states. "However, the Vehicle Code limits a local government’s ability to specifically regulate mobile food or non-food vendors on public streets to their detriment unless there is a public safety concern."

But that snag might not change much–food trucks operating for more than an hour are required to have written permission to use a restroom 200 feet away. If a restaurant doesn't want a food truck parked out front, it can just deny access to its restroom, the staff report says.

The full proposed changes are attached to this article as a PDF.

Any changes made by the planning commission would have to be later approved by the city council.

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Elk Grove Planning Commission meeting
6:30 p.m. Thursday
8400 Laguna Palms Way

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What do you think of these changes? Does Elk Grove need more food trucks? Tell us in the comments section below.