Lodi council endorses taco truck cap

If you were hoping one of those taco trucks would park its portable menu closer to your office sometime soon, don’t hold your breath.

Lodi’s elected leaders tonight gave their first endorsement of an ordinance that caps the number of the lunch wagons that can operate at one time in town. Some City Council members have expressed concerns with how quickly the popular trucks were proliferating.

It’s the latest episode for a city that, like many towns in the region, has long struggled with how – and how much – to regulate the mobile lunch stations.

Under the ordinance, which requires a second vote to take effect, permits for lunch wagons would be capped at 22, the current number of trucks operating in town today.

During the lunch rush today, Sherrie Owens made her first trip to a lunch wagon at Kettleman Lane and Hutchins Street with her co-workers, who are near-daily regulars. Owens, 56, has eaten plenty of the food they often bring back to work, though.

She said a cap on the number of trucks seemed fair.

“If you have too many of them, where are you going to put them?” she asked. “Sometimes, you have one across the street from each other.”