Revised Street-Food Bill Is Much Less Restrictive

​Beyond Chron broke the news today that Assemblymember Bill Monning has significantly revised AB-1678, a bill he introduced in February that would prohibit food trucks from parking within 1500 feet of elementary and secondary schools. The bill, as it was written, would have covered close to 80 percent of San Francisco, effectively channeling the city's growing number of food trucks into FiDi and the city's eastern edge.

The newly revised bill drops the 1,500-foot radius to 500 feet -- one block, as opposed to three. Furthermore, it would only apply to public schools, not private, and exempt trucks parking on private lots and construction and film sites.

It would also make it much easier for food trucks to park in San Francisco's residential neighborhoods. Currently, SF city regulations prohibit food trucks from parking on public property within 1,500 feet of a middle school or high school. At the end of last month, Supervisor Scott Wiener, responding in part to AB-1678, introduced legislation that would reduce this 1,500-foot ban to 500 feet.

Wiener told SFoodie today that his ordinance is still going through the legislative process, and may or may not be amended. But if the Board of Supervisors passes it before January 2013, San Francisco's version of the bill (which only applies to middle schools and high schools) will supersede state law.

"I think it's much, much better," Wiener says of the revised AB-1678. "In terms of San Francisco-specific issues with the bill, it resolves them." If both bills are passed, in fact, we could see more food trucks appear in the Mission and other residential neighborhoods now off-limits to them.