EAU CLAIRE, WI – At their meeting on May 22, 2018, the City Council of the City of Eau Claire approved updates to the ordinances related to mobile food trucks and sidewalk carts. The changes are intended to give more flexibility and opportunity to operators of mobile food establishments and encourage more food trucks to make their home in the City.

“We’ve been hearing from the food truck operators that the ordinance was unworkable in practice. We hope these steps will reduce the barriers to entry for new food trucks and help add to our City’s growing food scene,” said Ray French, Business Assistance Specialist.

The amendments to the license were developed with input received from current and prospective food truck operators and restaurateurs in the City since the license was first created in 2016 and from a listening session in March, 2018.

The changes adopted by the City Council are:

• Lowering the fee for mobile food establishments and sidewalk carts to $120;
• Extending the duration a mobile food establishment may operate in a single spot on a City street from four hours to six hours;
• Eliminating the time restriction for parking in City Parks in designated locations;
• Eliminating the one-night-per-week limit on food trucks in six small neighborhood parks;
• Permitting a mobile food establishment to operate within 200 feet of a restaurant if written permission is obtained from all restaurants within 200 feet of operation; and
• Aligning the City’s licensing period with licenses issued by the City-County Health Department for first-time applicants for a restaurant, sidewalk cart food vendor, and mobile food establishment license between April 1 and June 30 to not expire until the following June 30.

The City also expanded the designated locations within the City Parks food trucks may operate to generally be anywhere there is parking. For maps of those locations or to inquire about licenses for mobile food trucks, sidewalk carts, or restaurants, please contact the City’s Licensing Specialist at (715) 839-4923 or licensing@eauclairewi.gov. For licensing questions to the City-County Health Department, please call (715) 839-4718.