Group asks City Council to consider allowing food trucks in South Lake Tahoe

A planned food truck event in South Lake Tahoe had to be cancelled this summer due to the prohibitive costs and processes involved in putting on such an event.

"We are so hungry to get a food truck culture going in Lake Tahoe,” said Rob Giustina of On Course Events, the company who had planned the "Tahoe Truck Stop" food truck weekend event.

During the September 19 South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting, two members of the public spoke to the Council, asking for changes to the existing code that would make it possible for businesses to operate mobile vending food facility year-round and on a non-temporary basis.

Current code allows for a mobile business to move every 15-minutes, something not viable for a food truck business. There is also a special-use permit a company could apply for, but they could only use that permit four times annually.

Food trucks are popular in many cities across the country that create community events around their existence such as Food Truck Fridays in Reno, Nev., Truckee Thursdays at our neighbors to the north, and Tahoe Park Food Truck Mania in Sacramento.

South Lake Tahoe residents Devin Middlebrook and Nicole Smith, owner of South Lake Brewing Company, spoke to the Council during public comment period, asking them to bring the matter up on an agenda. They were speaking as representatives of a group of citizens and business owners in South Lake Tahoe who are encouraged by the current economic atmosphere in the community and looking for rules to change to meet the current climate.

They offered to work with city staff to review and recommend proposed changes to the city's existing mobile vending code.

Existing SLT Code 4.35 deals with mobile vending and the definition of a "Mobile vendor:” A person conducting the business of selling a product from a motor vehicle, cart or trailer towed by a vehicle on a temporary, intermittent or seasonal basis.

Proposed changes: Mobile vendors can set up for up to 8 hours per day, and up to five times per week, at any one location; Mobile vendors must receive written permission from the property owner and/or primary leassee, public or private, before operating at that location.

At the end of the meeting, Mayor Austin Sass asked for this matter to come before the Council on a future agenda.