Customers grab lunch Tuesday at a food truck off of Portshead Road near Pacific Coast Highway. Residents have recently complained about trash and traffic congestion resulting from the presence of food trucks, junk trucks and mobile billboards in the area.

 Citing potential lawsuits, the Malibu City Council on Monday declined to pursue an ordinance regulating food trucks in city limits, instead turning to a little-known provision in state transportation law to prohibit them from parking on Pacific Coast Highway.

Point Dume residents have recently complained of trash and traffic caused by the trucks.

“Other cities, for a change, are taking the lead in being sued by industry representatives,” City Attorney Christi Hogin said, poking fun at several lawsuits the city has battled over the past few years.

The idea of imposing regulations upon food trucks, junk trucks and mobile billboards in the city first came about at a meeting in September when a resident complained of trash and traffic caused by food trucks in the Heathercliff Road and PCH area. Residents have also complained of too many junk trucks and mobile billboards parking for several days along local roadways to advertise their services.

But Hogin advised the council to wait on the outcome of current cases against other local cities that have been sued for trying to regulate the presence of food trucks.

Instead, the council asked the Malibu/Lost Hill’s Sheriff’s Department to start enforcing an existing state law that prohibits vending along Pacific Coast Highway. It also directed staff to request the county health department to increase health inspections on food trucks in the city.

During the research process for a possible ordinance, Hogin’s staff came across a specific regulation in California state law that bans vending on PCH, but not on side streets. Staff immediately notified the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station about the enforceable law.
“It’s not often we find ordinances within the state highway code that actually benefit us,” quipped City Manager Jim Thorsen.

Sheriff’s deputies began issuing courtesy notices to PCH vendors a few weeks ago and are now enforcing the state law by issuing citations. They can also cite vehicles such as mobile billboards that stay parked for more than 72 consecutive hours.

Thorsen said the city hopes to have these problems solved in the next two to three months.

Edison rep rebukes criticism in wake of recent outages
After a recent wave of power outages across Malibu, Edison spokesman Mark Olson called the recent string of local power losses “an unusual occurrence” during a presentation to City Council on Monday.

More than 7,000 Southern California Edison customers in Malibu lost power in four separate outages between Nov. 10 and Nov. 21. On Nov. 10, a tree fell and knocked down a major line at Bonsail Drive and PCH, leaving more than 4,000 customers in west Malibu without power for at least 12 hours.

Last week on Nov. 21, nearly 2,400 customers lost power when an underground Edison switch failed and had to be replaced. Power came back on for most of those customers within two hours, but some were in the dark until the next morning.

Local activist Hans Laetz questioned Edison on the scale of the outages and believes the company’s Malibu grid is outdated. Laetz has warned that ongoing windstorms could ultimately cause further outages and poles to be knocked over, similar to the 2007 Malibu Canyon fire that caused $14.5 million in damages and burned dozens of cars and structures.

Edison is continuously inspecting equipment and conducting ongoing upgrades, according to Olson.

“The work that we’ve done and continue to do is upgrade the system,” Olson said. “Some people think we don’t upgrade the system but we do.”

Mayor Lou La Monte briefly floated the idea of undergrounding Malibu’s power lines. The process could cost approximately $5 million per mile of power lines, according to Olson.

“The cost would be so prohibitive [to Edison],” Olson said. “The luxury is paid by requester usually.”

The city would also have to consider how to accommodate cable and telephone companies that attach their wires to power lines owned by Edison.

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Malibu City Council on Monday night will consider drafting regulations on food trucks, other types of mobile vendors and mobile billboards after receiving several residential and community complaints at past meetings.

Planners prepared a 12-page report detailing areas of concern over the mobile ads and vendors. Residents who live near popular food and junk truck spots in commercial areas such as Heathercliff Road and Pacific Coast Highway asked city officials to help curtail what they see as a local nuisance that leaves trash strewn about, causes added traffic, takes away public parking spots and creates blind spots for drivers.

At a Council meeting in September, local resident J.D. Stevens said he started noticing the food and junk trucks about a year ago and wants the City Council to do more to deal with the constant annoyance.

City officials were worried that state law could trump whatever ordinance the city might draft since the state controls PCH. State law currently allows food and junk trucks to park along the highway. The can, however, try to enact an ordinance based on concerns over public safety.

“State law provides that municipalities can regulate mobile vending on the  public right-of-way only, so long as the regulation is rationally related to issues of public safety,” the report said.

Check back tonight and tomorrow for coverage of the City Council’s discussion.

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The Malibu City Council is expected to discuss possible further regulations on mobile vendors — like food trucks — and billboard displays that dot Pacific Coast Highway in response to complaints from residents.

With complaints about food trucks and other mobile vendors on the rise in Malibu, the Malibu City Council is set to discuss the city’s options in putting more restrictions on the businesses later this month.

Councilwoman Laura Zahn Rosenthal said she is in favor of enforcing laws already in place that regulate food trucks and other mobile vendors.

“I am hoping that we have the right to eliminate mobile vendors from the State Highway per Section 731 of the State Highway code. As you can see, this would be the best case scenario regarding this issue,” Rosenthal said. “For once, having a state highway as our main street would be an asset.”

The meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. Nov. 13 at Malibu City Hall (see the attached agenda report to the right).

Most concerns aired by residents over the past several months before the council stem from food trucks along Pacific Coast Highway, especially on the corner of Heathercliff Road. Other complaints have been made about a juice truck in the Cross Creek area and vehicles that rent recreational equipment near the Malibu Pier.

According to a city staff report prepared by Associate Planner Joseph Smith, the city is working to step up enforcement through the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department of existing provisions in the State Streets and Highway Code, which limits parking on public rights-of-way to 72 hours.

The council could also consider extending those regulations to other public rights-of-way other than along PCH, but that would require an ordinance, the staff report states.

Restrictions by other cities, including in Manhattan Beach, have generated lawsuits, something Malibu hopes to avoid.

“Regulating these uses is challenging for a variety of complicated legal and policy reasons, and, in general, municipalities have been limited in the extent to which they can regulate,” according to the report.

Matt Geller, chief executive officer of the SoCal Mobile Food Vendors Association (SCMFVA), said his organization has worked with cities in the past to “ensure mobile vendors are able to do business the way the state intended.”

Geller said the SCMFVA is willing to help advise the city on what other coastal cities have successfully done to regulate mobile vendors.

“Malibu’s a very cool, kind of hip place. This kind of trend has taken cities by storm. They have a lot of people who really like it. It’s balancing new trends with regulations that are sound and don’t go above and beyond their municipal power. We love trying to get cities in a place where they are comfortable with mobile vending,” Geller said.

Earlier this month, the city spent $38,000 to install 39 trash cans near bus stops along Pacific Coast Highway as part of an effort to reduce the amount of trash near food trucks.

The council will also consider putting further restrictions on mobile billboards.

Rosenthal said regulating the billboards may be more difficult.

“I am certainly in favor of finding ways to curtail these visual blights and distractions,” Rosenthal said

http://malibu.patch.com/articles/malibu-city-council-to-discuss-crackdown-on-food-trucks