Good news for fans of food trucks. Pittsburgh city council voted 7-2 on Tuesday to update a city ordinance governing food trucks in the city.
Under the new rules, food truck operators are permitted to park in metered spaces for up to four hours, as long as they feed the meter. The previous ordinance required trucks to move every 30 minutes from public places that aren’t metered.
The new rules bar the trucks from parking on city streets between midnight and 7 a.m. Truck operators will be required to pay for a license from the city at a cost of $1,200 annually and be subject to Allegheny County Health Department regulation.
City council member Darlene Harris put forth an amendment Tuesday to bar the trucks from certain metered streets on the North Side but that amendment failed.
For years, trucks like the PGH Taco Truck, Franktuary, Steer & Wheel and others operated under rules put into place decades ago, primarily focused on ice cream trucks. While he was campaigning for mayor, Bill Peduto put making Pittsburgh a “food truck friendly city” on his list of policies to change Pittsburgh.
After Tuesday’s meeting, city council member Dan Gilman, who introduced the legislation and has steered its progress for several years said the council’s action removed a “blemish” on Pittsburgh’s status as a world-class city, by doing away with its outdated food truck rules.
“Food trucks are a big part of the culture of American cities,” Gilman says. “And a city’s government shouldn’t be standing in the way of progress.”
