Claims of unfair competition among mobile food vendors by restaurant owners in Emeryville have led the city to create a task force to examine and make changes to its current regulations for mobile vendors. The thirteen-member task force held its preliminary meeting Tuesday night, which was filled with back-and-forth banter between the opposing sides with the hope of reaching a resolution before the holidays.
As SF Weekly reported last month, the task force is composed of four truck vendors, five restaurant owners (who call themselves “brick and mortars”), two city council members, and four city residents who dine at both trucks and restaurants. Sitting around a large metallic table, the force hashed out an agenda of discussion items. Karen Hemphill, the City Clerk, provided items such as: limiting the geographic area that mobile food vendors may operate, limiting the number of mobile food vendors, raising permit fees, regulating mobile food vendors on private property, use of public right of way for cooking, seating and/or storage, and developing remedies for non-compliance with the ordinance.
