The city of Manhattan Beach is developing a "mobile vending permit" that would put restrictions on food vendors as well as mobile non-food businesses that operate on city streets. 

The issue arose over the summer as new food trucks proliferated around Southern California, particularly in crowded beach cities, causing concern about street congestion, competition with local brick-and-mortar businesses, and other health and safety issues.

At Tuesday night's City Council meeting, councilmembers voted unanimously to move forward with a process to create a formal permit for the mobile businesses. The item will come back before City Council on November 4 with details on business fees. 

Currently, food trucks require an L.A. County health permit and, within the city of Manhattan Beach, they require a business license. A city-issued permit would carry tighter restrictions, allowing the vendor to carry out only specific activities that comply with safety and regulatory requirements.  

The proposed new one-year permit would require that mobile vendors proof of state and county permits/approvals, liability and auto Insurance, progressive citation fines and revocation after fourth violation, and a business license. 

It would prohibit mobile vendors from parking in parking lots, bike lanes, parks, non - street areas; within 50 feet of controlled intersections and within 150 feet of uncontrolled intersections; on streets with 5% or greater vertical slope; within 10 feet of special curb zones; within 500 feet of the farmer’s market or a special permit zone; within 50 feet of another mobile vendor; within 300 feet of a school between 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on school days; on any street with a speed limit of 35 miles per hour or greater; and in more than one marked parking space or in diagonal spaces. 

Operating hours would need to be between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. in commercial areas and between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. in residential areas. 

Other restrictions would include: 

The permit issue will return to City Council for a second reading on November 4, at which time city staff will present the proposed cost of the permit. 

Among the concerns residents and businesses had raised were potential health violations including unsanitary food preparation and/or vermin attraction; environmental concerns including Illegal dumping, oil and grease disposal, and potential damage to city infrastructure; and other safety concerns including fire hazards, traffic congestion, unsafe parking, pedestrian access, ADA compliance, and driver sight distance. 

Business owners also said that the food trucks sapped revenue from their brick-and-mortar establishments.

"Food trucks present unfair competition to locally owned, year-round restaurants, boutiques and cafes," said Kelly Stroman, executive director of the Downtown Manhattan Beach Business & Professionals Association, at a City Council meeting in July. "These businesses make long-term commitments and investments in our communities, paying rent, elevated parking permit fees, trash fees, signage fees. They hire locally, they contribute locally, they pay taxes...Food trucks operate with lower overhead, minimal community ties and little accountability, and yet draw from the very same customer base that you beloved businesses do."

A spokesman for Yeastie Boys Bagels who identified himself as Matt appeared at the same City Council meeting in July o express willingness to work with the city. 

"We've tried to approach the situation with lots of thoughtfulness and kindness and polish - and despite being a food truck business, we are a larger operation and widely known in L.A. and really do our best to be respectful of all the communities we're in," he said. 

The spokesman added that during ten days it had been in business in Manhattan Beach, Yeastie Boys had paid fees and fines of $1,259, equaling about $104 a day. "Prorated per square foot amount, we actually pay a market rent more more per square foot that goes direct to the city - not to a landlord who then pays a 1.3% property tax," he added.

Yeastie Boys had pledged to work with the city and business leaders. 

At Tuesday night's meeting, Stroman said that she supported the proposed permit, as long as there was assurance that the city would enforce the new rules and aggregate fines "so we can track it and keep everyone on the up and up and everyone safe."