There's Plenty Of Room For Food Trucks In D.C.

To fight the argument that proposed food truck regulations in D.C. will doom the food truck industry, two directors of city agencies will speak in a public hearing to pinpoint more than 150 prime locations for vendors to be set up in the Central Business District.

Terry Bellamy, director of the Department of Transportation, and Nicholas A. Majett, head of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, are to present their plan at a public hearing Friday where they will identify over 150 potential food truck locations. According to the Washington Post, the duo has pinpointed locations such as 19 parking spots around Farragut Square, 15 around Union Station, and 13 near Franklin Square along with others that satisfy the rules for public safety and space management.

Even though the District's regulations were proposed in March to reduce sidewalk crowding, blocked Metro and bus stops, and lack of public parking downtown, the food truck association just learned the specific numbers of the regulations this Thursday. The Washington Post reported that the regulations will allow at least three spaces for trucks at each mobile vending zone and still impose the rule requiring 10 feet of "unobstructed" sidewalk next to any parking space not part of a mobile roadway vending zone.

If Bellamy and Majett's proposal were to be passed, the number of food trucks in certain locations would stay in the same range as it is now. However, the divide still remains while the food truck administration plans to protest the rules altogether and the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington still hopes for the District's vending rules to be passed.

Skyler Bouchard is a junior writer at the Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter at @skylerbouchard.