Glendale Proposes New Limits on Vending Trucks

Mobile vending trucks would have to stay away from parks and schools, limit their sales hours and face tougher penalties for breaking rules under an ordinance recommended Tuesday by Glendale city officials.

The Glendale City Council told its staff in February that it wants to impose new restrictions on mobile vendors who sell sandwiches, ice cream, produce and other items. The council deferred action on the proposed ordinance Tuesday, asking the staff to make minor changes and bring it back to the council in two to three weeks.

The revised law, combined with significant fee hikes proposed by the city staff, would give Glendale some of the toughest mobile vending rules in Los Angeles County, one longtime operator said.

“They’ve gone further and faster with these regulations than any other city in which we operate,” said Dorothy E. Heyne, co-owner of Ray’s Rite Rate Lunch Service in Glendale.

The industrial catering firm, founded in 1943, owns or supplies 50 food trucks that operate in Glendale, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Burbank, Beverly Hills and other cities.

But Glendale council members said a crackdown is needed because of residents’ complaints that the vendors disrupt their neighborhoods. And business people have complained that the vendors divert customers from stores and restaurants that must charge higher prices because of higher operating costs.

“They’re totally out of control,” Councilwoman Ginger Bremberg said.

City officials said some vendors have avoided county health department inspections and may not be sanitary. Bremberg referred to some vending vehicles as “roach coaches.”

Under the proposed restrictions:

* Mobile vendors could operate only from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

* The vehicles could not park within 300 feet of a park or a school.

* Mobile vendors could not sell on private property within a residential zone.

* A mobile vendor who violates Glendale rules twice would face a misdemeanor charge; conviction would result in the loss of the vending license.

* The present 10-minute limit on vending at any one place would increase to 15 minutes.

Heyne said she was concerned about some of the proposed changes, including the ones that could bar her from construction sites before 6 a.m. and from Glendale campuses, where her trucks traditionally provide snacks to night school students.

Glendale officials said the city clerk could grant exemptions in such cases.

But “you could spend a lot of time at the city clerk’s office looking for exemptions,” Heyne said. “Other businesses that are paying the same taxes aren’t subject to the same red tape.”

Glendale has issued about 120 mobile vending licenses this year, each costing $36. City Manager David H. Ramsay said he will propose increased fees to pay the cost of enforcing the new rules.

The staff is considering a plan that would boost the annual mobile vending fee to $300 per company and $50 per truck, said Steven Adams, an assistant to Ramsay.

Heyne said Glendale’s charge would be significantly higher than those she pays in any other city in which she operates.

She said the new rules and fees would punish her business for offenses she said were committed by some smaller operators.

“The problem is to find the right balance,” Councilman Jerold Milner told Heyne at Tuesday’s meeting. “We don’t want to penalize you, but on the other hand, we have a proliferation of less-desirable mobile vendors.”