January 22, 2010 --Without any formal advertising, the so-called gourmet food trucks parked at a vacant lot earlier this month on 14th Street and Santa Monica Boulevard attracted an estimated 1,200 customers in just one day. But City officials shut down the operation less than 24 hours later, claiming a zoning violation.

The mobile food court could still have a future in Santa Monica. Council members on Tuesday asked City staff to study the idea of allowing the trucks to operate in the city, although not necessarily at the 14th Street site.
“We obviously wouldn’t want to set up a big food court in between two restaurants on a vacant lot or something like that,” Council member Robert Holbrook said. “But I think there are places in the city where this would work out just fine. And everybody would benefit from it.”

The gourmet food trucks have quickly increased in popularity throughout the Los Angeles area during the past year. These restaurants on the move offer a variety of foods that are considered more sophisticated than what is provided by the traditional hot dog vendors and taco trucks. Twitter and other technologies are used to alert fellow foodies when the trucks are in the area.

Howard Krom, an attorney representing the owner of the 14th Street property, told the council, “We feel this is the wave of the future.”

He continued, “It is clear that this is a use that is very popular and supported by people. We believe it would allow for more regulated and better regulated food service operations than there is from food trucks that presently exist on city streets.”

Several council members agreed with Krom’s assessment about this being the future of food service, but they stressed that the City must be careful how it proceeds. Council member Richard Bloom noted that "the 14th Street operation was located next to a residential area". “We need to do it right,” Bloom said.

Council member Kevin McKeown added, “There’s a reason why a City like Santa Monica has a zoning code. It’s because we’re trying to appropriately integrate activities, mix things up so people have the excitement and the access, but also protect residences and make sure that inappropriate uses don’t impact people.”

McKeown called the trucks “a fascinating idea fraught with complications.”
He further noted how this is a difficult situation because there is nothing in the City’s zoning code addressing gourmet food trucks, since they did not exist when the laws were first written. McKeown said this is true for several types of new businesses.

“We may [need to] look at greater flexibility in future zoning code to allow this kind of evolution,” McKeown said.