3 Food Trucks Is 3 Too Many for Peoria

Looks like the fine folks of Peoria won't be chowing down on kimchi tacos anytime soon. This week, the city council of the Illinois metropolis voted down a proposal to offer three (three!) permits to food truck operators. It's not like the trucks were going to be allowed to run wily nilly around the city:

The defeated ordinance would have charged truck operators $3,400 to serve food at approved locations within the Warehouse District, in front of the Peoria Civic Center and along Hamilton Boulevard next to the Peoria County Courthouse. The fee was $1,000 less for truck operators who already own a restaurant.

Outside the Downtown area, the ordinance restricted food trucks from being within 200 feet of existing restaurants.

Also, the ordinance established a 500-foot restriction on food trucks from schools, carnivals, festivals and other special events.

The whole debate started when a couple of would-be food truckers approached the city about opening up shop:

City officials had been working on crafting an ordinance for several months after a couple of food truck operators approached them about wanting to operate in Downtown Peoria during lunch hours. Two public meetings have been held and the council had previously deferred the issue so the city's staff could provide more information and refine the ordinance.

The new rules would have replaced already allowed food carts with food trucks. Too radical for Peoria, apparently.

Peoria is not alone, unfortunately, in its battle against mobile eats.

Via Jeff Trigg.