City Council Officially Lifts Monrovia's Food Truck Ban

The City Council voted Tuesday to reverse Monrovia's ban on food trucks in Old Town and other parts of the city as part of a settlement it reached with a mobile vending organization that sued the city.

The Socal Mobile Food Vendors Association sued Monrovia after it instituted a ban on food trucks in 2010 and collected $75,000 in attorney's fees from the city when it entered into what City Manager Laurie Lile called "an expensive settlement" last month. The city spent about $140,000 on its own attorey's fees defending against the lawsuit before deciding to settle last month, according to Lile.

The SMFVA contended that Monrovia's ban violated the law by unfairly excluding food trucks from certain areas of the city. The city's new mobile food ordinance, passed Tuesday in a 4-0 vote with Councilman Tom Adams absent, lifts the ban and establishes a "kind of a standard set of regulations for food trucks, in this county at least," City Attorney Craig Steele said.

In addition to lifting the mobile vending ban, the new ordinance passed Tuesday will also eliminate parking time limits that the city set for food trucks. The new law still calls on the trucks to obtain a business license from the city and abide by the county health department's inspection system, Steele said.

Food trucks will also be barred from stopping within 25 feet of intersections or within 300 feet of a school during school hours without the permission or the principal, according to a city agenda report.