The Naperville city council is considering how much, if any, regulation of food trucks is necessary. It was about seven years ago when the city council had similar discussions with the topic being food carts, specifically how many permits to allow.
Watch and listen to then councilman Steve Chirico express his opinion of limiting competition and not increasing the number of permits for food carts:
Now watch and listen to Mayor Chirico as he leans toward regulation of food trucks, but not as strongly:
Interestingly, former Mayor George Pradel took a softer and more friendly position on regulating food carts, than the current council is taking:
That was back when Naperville’s focus was more family-friendly. Considering Mayor Pradel was Officer Friendly when he was a member of the Naperville Police Department, his user-friendly style was no surprise.
Naperville’s unwritten policy for regulation is simple: if it moves, regulate it, if it doesn’t move, regulate it; either way tax it.
Bunch of morons. Austin Texas has tons of food trucks and hasn’t hurt them one bit. Bunch of clueless idiots.
If the parking lot or space the truck is park in/on is city property then they should need permission, just as they would if they were parked on private property. They should also be required to collect the same taxes that brick and mortar restaurants operating in Naperville have to collect.
Giving Food Truck operators any economic or regulatory advantage over our brick and mortar restaurants would not only be a mistake it would be unfair to these businesses and their owners. It should be a level playing field.
As to neighbors concerns about these trucks being parked on the private property of a business owner, how is it any different then the tow-trucks, catering vans, delivery vans, etc that are already parked on these properties? If the property owner can park such a vehicle on their property then they should be able to give others permission to do so.
Do you really want the city getting involved in regulating what vehicles can and can’t be park in the parking lot of a local business? This is something that Naperville, and other cities, have traditionally left to the property owners to regulate and I see no reason to change that policy. In fact I see nothing but headaches for the city should they start regulating the private parking lots of local businesses.