Maryland’s highest court rules against food trucks, upholds Baltimore City’s ’300-foot rule’

is an article in the Baltimore Sun. 

The rule bans food trucks from operating within 300 feet of brick and mortar restaurants.

This pretty much means that they can't operate in traditional commercial districts, which have a preponderance of restaurants, except on the outskirts, where patrons are likely to be few.

This is a good illustration of one of the problems in commercial district revitalization planning, over "who do you represent"?

Do you represent the interests of current business and property owners exclusively?

-- "Business improvement districts and boundary spanning," 2011

Or do you aim to manage the marketing and activity mix in a manner that meets the needs and interests and marketing goals for the district as a whole?  

-- "Planning programming by daypart, month, season: and Boston Winter Garden, DC's Holiday Market, etc.," 2016
-- "Ice cream shops as commercial district activation devices," 2018
-- "Richard's Rules for Restaurant Based Revitalization in the face of a pandemic," 2020

Plus, the support of entrepreneurship, recognizing that food trucks can be "a capital formation device" enabling proprietors to raise the funds and build the following necessary to support the opening and operating of a bricks and mortar restaurant.

This has surfaced over the years in DC, when business owners clamored for restrictions on food trucks. 

Granted they raised some important issues in terms of (1) the limited amount of sales tax contributions by food trucks, because of favorable treatment compared to brick and mortar restaurants; (2) impacts from overconcentration and (3) the importance of limits and focusing where are where not they should be located.

-- "Value of food trucks (Portland Oregon study), 2012
-- "Food trucks as a way in," 2011
-- "Another scale of planning failure: neighborhood vs. city-wide interests and food trucks, 2012
-- "Food truck issue revisited (DC)," 2013


DC's Pearl Dive restaurant has a "bar window" open to a streetside patio.

That being said, the issue to me isn't to ban them, but to manage them, as one more element of a commercial district's retail and marketing mix, especially in recognition that even before the pandemic, not everyone wants a sit down meal.

Restauranteurs have to accept that not everyone wants to eat inside, every time they want to eat.  Food trucks are also a way to expand the range of cuisines that might be available in a district.  Etc.

Related to the management matter is how to integrate food trucks into the representation scheme for commercial districts, imposing limits if appropriate, while also ensuring food trucks are good neighbors and pay their fair share of taxes.

Pandemic.  Of course, these days all bets are off as restaurants will have an exceedingly difficult time surviving with social distancing requirements that reduce the number of patrons, while fixed costs (rents and utilities in particular) are unchanged, and were based on a larger volume of business.