Granada Hills Cracks Down on Food Trucks

By Elina Shatkin Fri., Sep. 2 2011 at 12:35 PM

Hungry Angelenos line up at a food truck.

The newest front in the Food Truck Wars is Granada Hills, where 10 inspectors from the L.A. County Department of Public Health showed up on Wednesday night to raid "Food Truck Night" along Chatsworth Avenue between Zelzah and White Oak.

The crackdown follows the usual complaints from local brick-and-mortar businesses that "the trucks -- sometimes more than 60 at a time -- are stealing business and hogging parking spots meant for their own customers," reports The Daily News reports. Inspectors were looking to make sure the trucks were sanitary and that employees had access to suitable restrooms in nearby brick-and-mortar establishments.

A few hours earlier, at a meeting of the Granada Hills Chamber of Commerce, politicians took up several issues related to food trucks. Per The Daily News, one proposal would require food trucks to pay between $10 and $75 a day to the Granada Hills Chamber for permission to use restrooms in brick-and-mortar establishments.

[@elinashatkin / eshatkin@laweekly.com]

Tags:

Elina Shatkin, Food & The Law, Food Truck Wars, Food Trucks, Granada Hills, Legal Issue

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Sheane Callen

I too am a homeowner and 18yr resident of Granada Hills, and I fully agree with the other posters here. It's wonderful to see what has been, up until now, a sad and seemingly forgotten area, finally come to life! How wonderful to see friends and neighbors out in the evenings, sharing the fun food choices offered by these trucks and breathing new life into our wonderful city! I would urge "the powers that be" to open their eyes to the obvious, we residents are enjoying the newfound energy and community reflected here. And the folks who have decided to take up parking spaces simply to interfere with food truck parking should be ticketed for interfering in a community supported event.

Heartsofu

This is the best thing to happen in Granada Hills in all the years I have lived here. It has revitalized Chatsworth St in a monumental way. The stores along the corridor are opening and joining in the festival like atmosphere. It has alllowed the various cultures to share their food at reasonable prices. I hope it stays even though folks are starting to take up parking spaces to prevent the truck from parking on the street. Ba humbug!

obbop

Ensure to take shelter within a food truck if a tornado is bearing down upon thee.

Hannah Lee

I got to the food trucks almost every week. You have people out of their house talking tot heir neighbors The surrounding businesses are doing fine. I've found brick and mortar businesses I now go to that I never knew existed before because I'm walking the streets over there by the trucks. One way to make sure Granada Hills loose out is to implement a tax or fee for the food trucks.

Turkeyred1

As a homeowner and resident of Granada Hills for over 20 years-I can honestly say in my opinion that the food trucks are one the best thing's that has ever happened to the neighborhood.Chatsworth St is DEAD every night after 6pm-so stealing biz and parking spaces is ridiculous.Hopefully the issues can be resoved on both sides.