SIOUX FALLS, SD – A proposal headed to the City Council would clarify rules for food trucks and allow them to legally stay open later.

City officials have been working for nearly two years to develop new regulations for food trucks, food carts and other mobile food vendors, and get them out from under rules that govern door-to-door salesmen in Sioux Falls.

The Community Development office Tuesday introduced a proposal to the City Council’s Public Services Committee that city officials say would permit curbside meals while also being sensitive to brick-and-mortar restaurants.

“We certainly want to legalize mobile vending to make it work, to make it right,” said Adam Roach, Sioux Falls’ neighborhood development director.

Until now, food trucks and other mobile food vendors have been regulated as peddlers, but it doesn’t make sense to put food trucks in the same category as salesmen who pitch vacuums and liquid cleaners, Roach said.

For example, peddler rules restrict hours of operation to 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. The city hasn’t enforced those hours for food trucks because they don’t solicit customers door-to-door.

Under the proposed ordinance, which Roach said would take effect in 2016, a new license would be created specific to food trucks and food carts. New hours of operation would be established — 6 a.m. to midnight during the week and 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. on weekends — and the licensing fee would go up to $75 from the $35 a peddler pays. It also would require mobile vendors to provide trash containers for garbage and recyclables, accommodate customers with disabilities, and meet certain background check requirements.

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