NORTHBROOK, IL – Northbrook is looking into considering some sort of regulations for food trucks, which have been on the rise in the area.

Village trustees directed staff to research the topic further after a preliminary report was presented at a meeting in May.

Tom Poupard, Northbrook’s director of development, said in 2012 the village had 13 mobile vendors, an increase of five from eight in 2011. So far in 2013 the village already has granted 12 mobile vendor permits, he said.

The food trucks, which now follow the village’s regulations for ice cream trucks, already have to apply for mobile food permits with the town and conduct inspections.

Poupard said the regulations the village is looking into now include figuring out whether to designate certain areas where the food trucks can or cannot park. At the moment the food trucks can park anywhere on private or public roads, Poupard said.

He said so far the food trucks have in general been received well in the community.

“We’re glad that we’re having this hip activity in our otherwise sleepy suburb,” Poupard said, echoing village trustees who also liked the increased activity in the community.

Workers from a few office buildings in Northbrook, especially the ones near the Skokie Boulevard and Dundee Road intersection, expressed their happiness over the increased variety of food options, Poupard said.

But the village also got its first complaint about a food truck that was parked in the downtown Northbrook area during the Earth and Harbor Day celebration in April. Little Louie’s, a local hotdog and sandwich shop that has been in Northbrook for about four decades, did not like that a mobile vendor, which catered similar food, parked across the street from them, Poupard said.

Poupard said the village is scheduled to discuss different options on potential regulations for food trucks at a communications and legislation committee on June 11 at 6:30 p.m.

Some nearby communities have passed different types of regulations that Northbrook is taking into consideration, Poupard said.

The regulations vary from detailed, such as in Evanston, to general ones, such as in Glenview, Poupard said.

Find the entire article by Alexandra Chachkevitch at the Chicago Tribune <here>