Toronto set to ease food truck bylaws

There's good news cooking for food truck lovers in Toronto. The City is on the verge of loosening archaic bylaws that have restricted the ability of food trucks to offer their eats on streets across town. Although the specifics won't be made public until closer to a March 18 Licensing and Standards committee meeting, the Star was able to wrangle some info about the proposed changes, the most notable of which is that food trucks will soon be able to operate near to existing restaurants, something which was previously forbidden.

We're unlikely to see food trucks just anywhere, as the availability of parking will be key to where vendors can operate, but this represents a major development in what has been a long and messy process to get Toronto up to speed on street food legislation. Despite tight regulations, food truck culture has thrived in Toronto over the last couple of years, but the eased regulations will likely favour existing operators as the City is expected to limit the number of permits awarded in a given year.

This is Toronto, after all. There will be red tape. Still, being able to operate on the sidewalk rather than locations designed to safeguard bricks and mortar restaurants will mean that food trucks become a fixture on city streets rather than just the festival circuit -- and that's good news.

by Derek Flack via blogTO