Food trucks to rally in Riverside on Tuesday

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Since San Bernardino County overturned its ban on food trucks a little over a year ago, Riverside County has been the sole remaining county to still ban them from operating on a daily basis.

That may soon change.

County Supervisor Kevin Jeffries is starting a push to overturn the ban, and he’s leading by doing.

There will be a food truck “rally” Tuesday (June 25) at the County Administrative Center at 4080 Lemon St. in downtown Riverside.

The event will take place from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. (though some trucks won’t arrive until 10 a.m.) in the building’s parking lot.

It just so happens that there is a Board of Supervisors meeting that day, and on the agenda for that meeting, there is an item on the policy calendar relating to revising Ordinance No. 580 as it relates to mobile food facilities, AKA food trucks.

In a nutshell, the revision would allow the Department of Environmental Health to extend opportunities for mobile food facilities to operate on a daily basis in the county.

Note that the revision only concerns the Department of Environmental Health. There is no mention of any type of land use permits that would be needed.

There will be no admission fee to access the trucks, and there will be free parking in the parking structure during the event.

Trucks scheduled to participate include:

Will Riverside County one-up San Bernardino County as far as food trucks are concerned?

Perhaps we’ll find out Tuesday.

Update: The event was a huge success, with each truck (which didn’t sell out) having lines right up to the end of the event. And, the county Board of Supervisors took notice, voting unanimously to have staff draft an ordinance allowing the trucks to operate on a regular basis. However, we heard rumblings about Temecula’s wine country wanting to restrict the trucks from operating there. We’ll see how that pans out. A report from CBS News is below.