Timothy Meinch

tmeinch@dmreg.com

Late-night tacos could be harder to come by if Des Moines adopts new rules limiting the hours that food trucks can operate.

The city is crafting stricter rules that would apply to vendors who operate on private property outside downtown Des Moines. The changes would not affect vendors who are part of the city's popular on-street food truck program.

City leaders say the changes are needed to protect neighborhoods from the noise and trash that mobile businesses create. But some Latino advocates see the rules as targeting trucks operated by Latino business owners and selling mainly Mexican foods.

“There’s a lot of problems,” Councilman Joe Gatto said at a recent council meeting.

Gatto, who owns a restaurant on the city's south side, rattled off a list of complaints he said he hears from constituents: “These people are open whenever. Their trucks are staying there (overnight). Their garbage is everywhere in my alleys. It’s late at night, they’re using the alley to go to the bathroom in.”

The proposed rules cut off sales after 10:30 p.m. and create a $550 annual fee for each property where a truck operates. Officials say the changes would help the city monitor food trucks and crack down on those who violate rules.

“They’re just trying to make a living, and to me, this seems to be a form of an ism, an attack on some minority-owned businesses,” said Joe Henry, a Des Moines resident and national vice president of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Henry said the city’s effort is reminiscent of regulations established in 2008 that shut down numerous mobile vendors along Southeast 14th Street. Those rules, requiring bathroom access for employees and trucks to move on a daily basis, apply to operators today.

"It's going to kill my business," said Rudy Castellanos, who started operating Taco Maya eight months ago at East University Avenue and East 14th Street.

Castellanos said his business stays open late to serve patrons leaving bars and discotheques.

"It doesn't make sense that they'll let the areas downtown operate until whenever, then only 10:30 p.m. for us," he said.

As of mid-May, there were 35 vendors with permits to operate on private properties. Vendors pay $550 to the city for a yearly license. Twenty-seven of those trucks specialize in tacos or other Latin American cuisine.

By contrast, only one of the 10 food trucks that are part of the downtown on-street program specializes in Mexican foods. The downtown trucks are allowed to operate until 1:30 a.m. There are other trucks that operate on private property downtown that also would be exempt from the new rules.

“We’re here to make sure the neighborhoods are safe, it’s a place where you want to live, because that’s the key to growth for the city,” Councilman Bill Gray said at a recent meeting.

He compared food trucks that stay open late with convenience stores that sell liquor: They attract questionable activity to neighborhoods, he said. “Neighbors are pretty much in bed by 10 p.m.”

Existing rules limit food trucks to commercial or industrial properties and require the trucks to leave the site for at least six hours each day.

In addition to limiting the hours of operation, the new rules would require that lots include striped parking spots on a paved surface, and trucks would be required to pass a local fire inspection before receiving a permit. Each property would be required to obtain a $550 permit. That cost would likely be shifted onto the vendors, who typically pay property owners monthly rent for their spaces.

Trinidad Maldonado, 37, owns one of several trucks that set up on commercial properties along Southeast 14th Street. She pays $600 a month to run La Rancherita in the parking lot of a used auto dealer, which also provides bathroom access for her employees. She launched the food truck nearly a year ago.

Maldonado said the curfew would not affect her business. She typically closes up shop by 10 p.m. But she questioned why there are two sets of rules for vendors.

“They should do it in downtown, the same rules," she said.

City officials invited vendors who might be affected by new rules to a public meeting Thursday evening to discuss the proposed changes. The Des Moines City Council is expected to vote on the new rules June 13, according to city officials.