Steaming mad at an ordinance targeting their business, four food truck vendors are hauling the city of San Antonio to court.
Facing $2,000-a-day fines for operating within 300 feet of a restaurant, the food truckers say the local restrictions are unconstitutional.
“San Antonio should be encouraging small-business owners like us, not trying to hurt our food truck businesses by playing favorites,” said Tacos el Regio owner Ricardo Quintanilla, one of the plaintiffs.
He is joined by Rafael Lopez of El Bandera Jalisco, Regino Soriano of El Bandolero, and Bernardo Soriano of El Bandolero II in a case challenging San Antonio’s food truck laws.
To operate legally, food vendors must get permission from any restaurant within 300 feet. If a restaurant opens within that zone, the truckers must move on.
The vendors’ lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Bexar County District Court, follows a successful challenge to a similar law in El Paso.
San Antonio’s ordinance applies to food trucks on private property that they own or lease, as well as to those using public parking spaces.
See the video below by the Institute for Justice that features the vendors involved in the lawsuit and explains their side of the suit and how the City cracks down on downtown food trucks:
“No one should need their competitors’ permission to run a business,” said Institute for Justice attorney Arif Panju, lead counsel for the food truck operators. “We wouldn’t expect a mom-and-pop hardware store to get permission from Home Depot to open down the street, and, for the same reason, we shouldn’t expect food truck owners to have to get permission from restaurants.
“The 300-foot rule does nothing to help consumers. It is used to help restaurants eliminate their food-truck competition,” Panju said.
Seeking a permanent injunction against the city, the IJ complaint cites the Texas Constitution’s “substantive due course of law” guarantee, which Panju describes as “the right to earn an honest living in the occupation of one’s choice free from unreasonable governmental interference.”
Jeff Coyle, San Antonio’s director of government and public affairs, said in a statement:
“The city has a long-standing policy of regulating the mobile food industry. The codes reflect a balance of interests between various sectors of the food industry and the public in an effort to maintain cooperation and communication, as well as to provide a safe environment for mobile food sales.”
Jon Lindskog, vice president of the San Antonio Food Truck Association, said, “None of our members have had a problem with the ordinance.”
“Enforcement only happens if someone complains, and not many restaurants have complained,” he told Watchdog.org. “The city isn’t driving around looking for violators.”
Lindskog, who owns a restaurant and two food trucks, said the association is taking no position on the lawsuit.
“No one in our association has been cited, and no one has been shut down. There’s enough business for everybody,” he said.
This story has been republished with permission from the Texas bureau of Watchdog.org.
*Top image: Regino Soriano is one of the plaintiffs in a case challenging San Antonio’s food truck laws. Image courtesy of Institute for Justice.
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Seems like if a restaurant makes a substantial investment in infrastructure (and ultimately the community) that is immobile, there needs to be a little protection for that brick and mortar store since they can’t simply pick up shop and move to where the patrons are like a truck can.
Very informative story!
Good luck with this city council.
-An Uber driver.
I hope the Taxi Lobby doesn’t get involved
One critical flaw in the Food Truck Vendor’s argument: they use either public resources (the street) or someone else’s private resources (a parking lot) to run their business. A mom-and-pop hardware store just can’t open in the Home Depot parking lot. If a Food Vendor wants to acquire real estate to park their truck, then the 300 foot limitation shouldn’t apply to them, or they should only be required to get permission from the private lot they are parked on (and not a neighboring business).
Furthermore, in commercial real estate, tenants often (but not always) have clauses with the landlord that prohibits direct competitors in the same shopping center, which is why you don’t see a mom-and-pop hardware store in the same center as a Home Depot.
I support Food Trucks and value the diversity they bring, but this seems a bridge too far.
I haven’t read the ordinance. I will now. But maybe the intent has more to do with smell, exhaust smoke from cooking, and engine noise, or maybe noise in general if they blare out music like a demented ice cream truck. Plus there are all the truck customers standing around eating and then trash disposal. It could be a nuisance to a sidewalk cafe or nice patio restaurant.
The plaintiff names seem like someone didn’t want tacos cooking nearby.
This is common zoning restrictions in light industrial areas. The restaurant picks a location based on what’s there. Although land use can change, there is more stability than some taco truck pulling up with mariachis. Bbq al pastor next to your wine patio and poetry reading
I love taco trucks near bars at night. I just mean that there are valid reasons that a resident/occupant of fixed location with fixed zoning should expect some mechanism for protection against nuisancehaving nothing to do with surrounding properties. The truck people can open a restaurant nearby if they like the neighborhood.
Or bring a tape measure and park 301 feet away.
lol..this aint Burger King…can’t just be having it your way when it suits you?!?!? Sometimes we cry tooo much …pay the fine..grow up…and read the rules….
I agree the ordinance needs to go away. Downtown at Geekdom we have hundreds of members there every day and only a handful of food options. Having food trucks would triple their options overnight. Right now we get two maybe three trucks which is just silly. You need 4 or more to create the sense that you have many options. This rule needs to die for sure.
Very bad argument when home depot has caused many small hardware businesses to close! One would be really dumb to open a small similar business next to a retail giant . Retail rent is also incredibly expensive and retail or food trucks should pay a fee and ask permission from similar business ! Again even if selling different food it creates competition that will affect your ability to pay rent! Not fair very week argument and there should be strict rules regarding required overhead!!!!!!
Sounds like it’s time for every business to be run out of a truck.