If you’re a food truck operator in Los Angeles and you don’t mind paying for one parking ticket a day, your costs may be about to soar.
A Los Angeles City Council committee signed off Wednesday on a draft of an ordinance aimed at cracking down on food truck operators who regularly park in illegal spots and “eat” the cost of the ticket as part their overhead.
The City Council voted to draw up the ordinance in February, and the Transportation Committee approved the wording of the measure with little discussion.
Current city law only allows one ticket to be issued per day for a parking violation, but the proposed ordinance — which only applies to food trucks — would create escalated penalties for each 30-minute increment during a parking violation.
Councilman Mike Bonin, who chairs the Transportation Committee, said the idea for the ordinance grew out of complaints that food truck operators in the Brentwood area were illegally parking and refusing to move.
Bonin, whose district includes Brentwood, said the trucks were becoming a safety hazard in some areas, including the intersection of Bundy Drive and Shetland Lane, where several serious auto collisions have occurred.
In one instance, a pregnant woman was hit as she was trying to make a turn and was unable to see around an illegally parked food truck, Bonin said.
“We have a system now that hasn’t been particularly effective at addressing the problem of some of these vehicles parking sometimes in very difficult places at key intersections that are creating a public safety problem. And part of the problem is that DOT’s practice and habit is to issue one $73 ticket,” Bonin said in January. “And to most folks, these things are very profitable, particularly on the upper scale, and they just eat that $73 cost as part of doing business.”
— City News Service