BALTIMORE COUNTRY, MD – An eleventh-hour amendment expanded Baltimore County’s food truck pilot program from a Towson-specific endeavor to a countywide measure, the last in a series of alterations to the guidelines that aimed to make food trucks more welcome outside city limits.

“Legislation sometimes has its twists and turns and this bill had many versions before we found a compromise that lightened the distance between food trucks and restaurants, but expanded the protections countywide,” Councilman David Marks, who represents Towson and introduced the bill, said in a statement. “This legislation strikes a healthy balance between restaurants and food trucks not just in downtown Towson, but throughout Baltimore County.”

County officials and the Maryland Mobile Food Vendors Association had previously agreed to a Towson-exclusive pilot program which would have provided a 300-foot buffer from brick-and-mortar restaurants in exchange for food truck parking zones near the Circuit Court in Towson and Towson University.

But an amendment presented by Councilman John Olszewski Sr., who represents the 7th District including Dundalk, includes the entire county.

Olszeweski said at the meeting that the change was intended to make the new rules “fair to all businesses throughout Baltimore County” by creating one standard.

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