BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – An attorney for a group of food truck and push cart vendors has written members of the Birmingham City Council to say the vendors have "serious concerns" about a proposed mobile food ordinance that they say is "extraordinarily restrictive" and, if passed as written, could drive them out of downtown .

“Our organization isn’t opposed to regulation, but the complexity of this ordinance is kind of astounding to me,” David Donaldson, the attorney representing the mobile vendors, said today.

Meanwhile, an Arlington, Va.-based civil liberties law firm also has offered to help the Birmingham street food vendors fight the proposed ordinance and today sent a letter to the council members asking them to reject it.

According to Donaldson’s letter, the mobile vendors are concerned with proposed regulations that would:

Restrict their hours of operation to two hours at any given time.

Prohibit food trucks and push carts from operating within 230 feet of an existing restaurant or another mobile vendor.

Require new annual fees specifically for food truck and push carts that the vendors feel are “clearly inappropriate.”

Force mobile vendors to do business in defined zones that are “clearly anti-competitive.”

Create a Mobile Food Vendors Committee that the vendors say would create unnecessary red tape.

Subject push-cart vendors, who are already regulated by Operation New Birmingham, to the same guidelines that would govern the food trucks.

“There is just a myriad of problems with this ordinance,” Jason Parkman, who owns the Spoonfed Grill food truck, said today. “If it goes through, the short answer is, it would push us out of the city.”

The Spoonfed Grill truck started doing business in the city in 2010 and helped jump-start a growing mobile food movement here that now includes trucks that offer everything from burgers and burritos to seared quail with braised greens.

In addition to Spoonfed Grill, Donaldson said he also represents the Shindigs Catering Truck, Cantina on Wheels, Greg's Hot Dogs, Fresh Off the Bun, Dreamcakes, Slice and other mobile vendors.

The food truck issue came to a head this summer, after some owners of downtown "brick-and-mortar" restaurants complained to the city that the food trucks were parking in front of their businesses and taking away some of their customers.

“Our big concern would be the fact that there seems to be an effort on the part of the city to stifle competition between the food trucks and the brick-and-mortar restaurants,” Donaldson said today. “They seem to view the two as mutually exclusive . . . and they seem to think the food trucks have some economic advantage over the brick-and-mortars.”

The council has said it wants to come up with regulations that are fair to both the restaurants and the mobile vendors.

Donaldson said he sent copies of his letter on Friday, Nov. 30, to council members Johnathan Austin, Valerie Abbott and Jay Roberson, but as of today, he had not received a response from either of them, he said.

“I haven’t heard anything but thundering silence from them,” Donaldson said. “All we are asking is for them to sit down and meet with us and let’s talk about some of these provisions and make them so we can still make a living. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”

Changes still possible, councilors say

Roberson said he had not received Donaldson’s letter until a copy was forwarded to him by al.com today.

After reading the letter, Roberson emphasized that the ordinance is still in draft form and subject to changes, adding that, in principle, he favors a plan with less restrictions and more flexibility for the mobile vendors.

“We should be a city of commerce, a city of business and of free-market enterprise,” he said. “We have to consider these (food trucks) are businesses that are aspiring to create revenue not only for themselves but also for the city of Birmingham.”

Abbott, who said she forwarded Donaldson's letter to the city's legal department for review, said the proposed ordinance is intentionally top-heavy with regulations.

"There is a lot of detail in the ordinance, but if you don't put a lot of detail in there, they will find a lot of loopholes and everything you have left out, they will do," Abbott said.

"We figure when we get finished, if we have an ordinance that everybody is irritated about, we will probably will have an ordinance that is pretty fair," she added. "But if one group is very happy about what we have done, then we will have crafted an ordinance that is biased in one way or another in favor of one group or the other."

Austin, who said he has read Donaldson’s letter, said today that the council has already held two public hearings about the food truck ordinance – one in July and

– but he is willing to meet with the mobile vendors again, if necessary.

“I’m very happy to meet with anyone and try to make some changes to it,” he said. “A lot of the suggestions that (Donaldson’s) letter has made are very good suggestions, and I’ll certainly try to incorporate some of those suggestions into the current draft of the ordinance.

“Nothing is set in stone,” Austin added. “All of this can be changed prior to passing the ordinance.”

Austin added that the ordinance was written “as strict as we possibly could make it” in order to get the attention of the food truck vendors.

“Sometimes in politics, and sometimes in government, you don’t have anyone speaking up about an issue until it affects them, when it looks like it’s going to have a big impact on their business,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that that happens.

“We are working to strike a happy medium,” he added. “But we needed to get their attention, and I’m certain we have their attention now.”

The ordinance could come to a vote at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, but it may be delayed until later, Austin said. The weekly council agenda comes out Friday.

Institute for Justice offers help

In the meantime, Christina Walsh of the Institute for Justice in Arlington, Va., also has taken up the cause of the Birmingham street vendors .

Today, Walsh emailed Birmingham Mayor William Bell and the nine council members a letter urging them to reject the proposed ordinance.

“The proposal raises grave constitutional concerns and will only serve to stifle entrepreneurship and rob Birmingham residents of the many benefits that street food has to offer your great city,” Walsh wrote in the letter.

The Institute for Justice, according to Walsh's letter, is a civil liberties law firm that recently launched its National Street Vending Initiative "to combat arbitrary and unconstitutional laws that stifle the rights of street vendors" and has fought laws restricting mobile vendor laws in Chicago, El Paso and Hialeah, Fla.

Walsh will be in Birmingham on Monday to advise the mobile vendors here, Donaldson sad.

“She is coming here to give us advice on how we can organize ourselves and prevent the government from shutting us down,” Donaldson said. “She just offered to come meet with us. We are happy to have all the help we can get.”

Email Bob Carlton at bcarlton@bhamnews.com