SPARKS, NV – When Alejandra Echeverria walked into Sparks City Hall on Feb. 27, she worried whether she would be able to do business in Sparks.

This week, she walked out of the same building with a smile, optimistic about the future of her family’s business as a food truck vendor.

“That’s our job that we have, that is our small business for my husband and myself,” Echeverria said. “That is our only source of income.”

This week’s 4-0 City Council vote to adopt clear-cut rules governing mobile food trucks means that Echeverria’s business — Amy’s Hot Dogs — will be able to expand into Sparks, she said.

“The city of Sparks has opened the door of opportunity not only to ourselves but others also,” said Echeverria, who represents a group of vendors known as the Mobile Food Trucks of Nevada.

Echeverria, who counts 12 in the association, attended meetings and workshop-type sessions in the weeks leading up to the council’s vote in Sparks.

Along the way, she spoke with city staffers and appeared before council members and Mayor Geno Martini.

Sparks put together the mobile food vendor rules primarily out of concern that the food trucks were taking business away from restaurants in the city. After much debate, Reno had adopted similar rules in February.

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