Last night, several Toronto food truck owners headed to City Hall to discuss the future of the city’s food truck industry and left reservedly hopeful that some changes will be made to the current street food vending bylaws.

Over the past couple years, there has been significant growth in the number of food trucks rolling into the GTA however, the city has been slow to catch up with the boom which has extremely limited where and when food trucks are able to serve the city’s hungry food truck lovers.

As of last Spring, the only way food trucks could serve on public streets is if they invested in a steep $5,066 permit but would still have to stay 50 linear metres away from any open restaurants which effectively bans them from the downtown core. This was one of the biggest arguing points brought up by the food truck owners at last night’s meeting.

Zane Caplansky, owner of both the Caplansky’s food truck and brick & mortar restaurant argued that ‘for $5,000 the number of spaces that would be available to vend at was simply not worth the price.” From what I’ve seen over the past year, there are only a couple spots in the city worth setting up and serving at for trucks who have invested in the permit.

If the 50m restriction is lifted or reduced, it would open up many new locations for food trucks to vend within the downtown core which according to Brittney Pawlick, owner of the Curbalicious Food Truck, would “make the price of the permit a non-issue.”

The next meeting to discuss the bylaws is scheduled for April 21st, until then the city staffers will look to make considerations to a few of the rules including:

• Reducing the 50 linear metre distance from open and operating restaurants
• Extending curbside operating hours in the same spot from three hours to five hours
• Offering a 6-month curbside permit at half the cost of an annual permit

Hopefully we’ll see an overhaul to the new bylaws for this upcoming season, because if not, it might be a fairly food truck free summer. That would be pretty devastating.

To find out where your favourite trucks will be each day, check back on our food truck calendar or download the Toronto Food Trucks app for iPhone or Android.