Chicago Food Trucks Lose Legal Battle Against City Regulations
By Rachel Cromidas in Food on Dec 5, 2016 6:21PM
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The Chicago food truck operators who have been fighting a city ordinance limiting where they can park for years lost a long-fought court battle Monday morning. A Cook County judge has ruled that the city's 2012 ordinance preventing food trucks from parking closer than 200 feet from a storefront restaurant is constitutional.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the operators of the food truck Cupcakes for Courage, argued against that rule and a rule that requires food trucks to have GPS trackers, which they said violated their rights to privacy. But Judge Anna Helen Demacopoulos said that argument was "absurd" according to the Sun-Times. Reports earlier this year found that the city wasn't routinely enforcing its food truck regulations around where and for how long food trucks are allowed to park. At the time, food truck operators said a crack down on the rules would hurt business.
Demacopoulos said the lawsuit set up local restaurants as adversaries against "the young, pop star food trucks," but that in her view the law actually helps "balance" the two competing business models, according to the Tribune.
The Institute for Justice, which represents the food trucks, said on Monday they would appeal the decision.