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Toronto city staff are calling for a major overhaul of municipal rules on food trucks so they can operate along roads and in parking lots.

Under a new proposed bylaw, the restaurants-on-wheels could sell from parking spaces on major and minor arterial roads, for up to three hours at a time, although they would have to stay at least 50 metres from a bricks and mortar restaurant.

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Commercial parking lots would also be fair game, if city council adopts the recommendations contained in a report to be discussed at the licensing and standards committee next week. The changes could be in place by Victoria Day long weekend.

The proposals are aimed at liberating would-be entrepreneurs who have long complained Toronto’s restrictive regulations prevent food trucks from flourishing. Rules vary, but most of the city does not allow food trucks to sell from the curb.

While the 50-metre rule will keep stretches of downtown drags off limits, city staff have identified more than 350 “mobile vending zones” where food trucks could pull up at pay and display parking. About 220 are in the core.