Groups want mobile food vendors to hit the road 7:45 PM

07:45 PM EDT on Monday, July 28, 2008

By MARIO ROLDAN / WCNC
E-mail Mario: MRoldan@WCNC.com




Mobile food vendors may face new rules

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A proposal to restrict how some of Charlotte’s mobile food vendors operate leaves critics wanting more and food vendors with a bad taste in their mouths.

"Discrimination," said Ecuador native Raúl Uscocovich. "It's a Latin business."

"Lonchera," is the Spanish word for lunch box. The mobile, tin-box taco stands represent the American dream for owners like Uscocovich.

However, some neighborhood groups want the roadside carts to hit the road.

"They are more suitable for flea markets, carnivals, street fairs," said Martin Doss, president of the Madison Park neighborhood association. "Canopy, picnic table -- it just doesn't look like the rest of the business strip."

Monday evening, Charlotte’s city council is scheduled to vote on new restrictions for the mobile "lunch boxes."

Under proposed restrictions, mobile food vendors would have to re-apply for a zoning permit every 30 days and cannot be in the same location for more than three months.

"I would lose my customers," said Uscocovich. "It’s hard for my loyal customers to find my lonchera."

Another proposed rule establishes a 400-foot buffer between existing mobile food carts. In other words, no more than one food stand would be allowed within a little more than a football field’s length of another.

Police want to keep the taco stands from opening past 9 p.m. because of claims that they attract crime in what are already considered crime hot spots like Central Avenue.

"They are trying to make everything so harder," said Uscocovich.

Vendors decry regulations because rules would remain different for food stands in Uptown Charlotte. Street vendors there need only apply once a year for a permit and don’t have to change locations within that year. Uptown mobile food carts are also allowed to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"It’s not fair," Uscocovich said.

Some neighborhood groups argue the taco stands may have been flying under the radar for too long.

"These weekend and after-hour vendors who setup shop in the parking lots of closed businesses make us look like a third-world community," Bernie Samonds wrote in an e-mail.

Samonds is president of the Derita-Statesville Road Community Organization.

"Our community is going to be watching this closely," Samonds added.