NEWPORT NEWS, VA – Starting Monday, mobile food vendors in Newport News can be cited if they are not in their assigned spots.

Vendors began camping out at City Hall on July 27, five days before applications could be submitted, to try to get the spots they wanted.

All nine food-truck permits were gone by noon Aug. 1, Assistant City Manager Cindy Rohlf said. Nine push-cart permits are assigned, and at least one was still available as of Wednesday.

The council passed an ordinance last month to give vendors designated locations, ensure no one was selling food without health department permits, and prevent vendors from parking their trucks unattended all day and night.

Some vendors worry the changes will hurt their business, by making them relocate away from their clientele, which in some cases has taken them years to build.

William Lassiter, who has set up his food truck near the fountain at City Center at Oyster Point since 2003, must now move downtown, where the designated spots are, if he wants to continue his business on public property, he said.

“I feel like I am being pushed out,” said Lassiter, who recently moved his operation to Centura College’s Newport News campus on Denbigh Boulevard.

Find the entire article at dailypress.com <here>