August 22, 2022
Mayor Dr. Robert Garcia
Members of City Council
City of Long Beach
411 W. Ocean Blvd.
Long Beach, CA 90802
Subject: Item 28 (22-1016) on the 8/23/2022 City Council Agenda Regarding Food Truck Regulations – OPPOSE
Dear Honorable Mayor Garcia and Honorable City Councilmembers:
On behalf of our approximately 750 members from across the greater Long Beach area, we want to offer our support for the position taken by the DLBA and the policy recommendations they have brought forward regarding the food truck regulations being discussed during the August 23th Long Beach City Council meeting. The Chamber supports local food trucks and wants to contribute to the success of small mom and pop restaurants, but we believe better regulations need to be implemented to provide a safe and healthy environment.
The regulation processes currently being implemented for food trucks fail to prioritize health, environmental, and safety priorities of the city. Our concerns include:
- Negative Impacts on Downtown Business: Due to food trucks stationing across the city, Downtown businesses are losing revenue to food trucks, including revenue from parking meters which goes to maintenance of our downtown area. Downtown businesses are also facing opportunity costs of guests who cannot find places to park and visit local brick and mortar businesses.
- Lack of Parking: Each food truck often takes additional parking stalls for staff parking and creates challenges for guests who wish to visit local businesses. - Environmental Challenges: Food trucks regularly pollute our air with Diesel engines idling for hours on end and pouring out cooking grease onto our streets and storm drains. - Health and Labor Issues: Food truck employees are subject to unsafe working conditions if they do not have access to local restrooms throughout the day. - Corporate vs. Family Owned: The majority of these trucks are owned by consolidated multi-unit multimillion dollar food vendors. Some of these businesses are larger than the individual brick and mortar business in our downtown area and are not Long Beach domiciled businesses. They do not pay Long Beach sales tax, property tax, business improvement District fees or Long Beach payroll tax.
Long Beach should make it a priority to create enforcement procedures that raise food trucks standards overall. To better address the issues created by the lack of current regulations, we are urging City Council to create enforcement procedures that include the following conditions:
- Food trucks should be small business and Long Beach-based to create better support for family- owned shops around the city.
- To address parking problems, food trucks should be stationed a prescribed amount of feet from brick-and-mortar stores.
- Food trucks should be regulated to pay their fair share of taxes and adhere to safety and health enforcement.
By addressing these concerns, you can provide support to our community by ensuring uniform health and safety regulations throughout the city. Thank you for taking our views into account.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Harris
President & CEO
Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce