Rules relax around food trucks in Monterey

Up until a decision Tuesday night, food trucks in Monterey could only park for one hour before they had to move. In a month, they will be able to park in the same spot from 8 a.m to 8 p.m. on certain streets. City council passed the new rules at their meeting Tuesday night. The rules will go into effect in 30 days.

“Food trucks, they always off on the side of the road,” said customer Tony Davilar. “You can always pop in and get a little something that you need to eat.”

Currently, food trucks are only permitted to park on-street and operate for one hour.

“After an hour they had to move to another block they couldn’t come back to that same hour period within a four hour period,” said City of Monterey associate planner Fernanda Roveri.

Choke Coach manager told KION moving locations every hour is a pain.

“By the time you set up it’s already a half an hour used before the customer can order from you,” said Choke Coach manager Johnathan Saguil. “By the time you fix everything it’s time to leave.”

Not only inconvenient for vendors, but their customers as well.

“If I go looking for the truck, it’s not there, it will probably throw off the cycle or it will even throw off the customer’s service,” said Davilar.

Businesses told KION being parked in the same spot for 12 hours will maximize business.

“We’ll be able to put it on Facebook what time you’re going to be in a certain area, people can follow us,” said Saguil.

But food trucks are not free to set up shop anywhere they want. Food trucks with the proper permitting will be allowed to park in 10 different areas: Cass Street, Del Monte Avenue between Camino El Estero and Camino Aquajito, Dela Vina Avenue, Ramona Avenue, Hannon Avenue, Garden Road, Harris Court, Thomas Owens Way, Mandeville Court and Justin Court.

City officials said they picked those 10 different locations because there is not a lot of potential for traffic and they can provide more food options.

“We tried to pick locations where there weren’t many restaurants,” said Roveri. “So we’re hoping that we’re providing opportunity for both the food truck vendors and the restaurants to still be able to sell and make a profit.”

The ordinance will go into affect June 3rd. City planners also told KION they are considering a food truck food court, possibly held in a parking lot.