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 will publish 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 regs don’t sound so bad to some of the new-school mobile vendors.
The District is expected to propose a two-tiered system in which food trucks will still be allowed to vend from any legal parking space, as long as they follow the posted time limits. But truck operators can also apply for a permit for a specially designated spot that will allow them to vend for four hours, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Read more...