STOCKTON, Calif. — As Kenneth Foster prepares to close down the Stocklandia food truck park which he co-owns in Stockton, he reminisces on the days, in just the past year, when the lot on West Lane would see long lines of people eager to eat and choose from a variety of foods.
"Right from the get-go, we were doing incredible business," Foster said. "People just flocked to it. We were all outdoors, so people felt safe; people were social distancing."
In October of 2020, Foster and three other business partners opened up their lot on West Lane renting spaces to local food trucks and, on some weekends, featuring temporary guest food trucks from out of the area.
Their business also included a podcast, based out of the food truck park site, and a brokerage service.
According to Connie Cochran, a spokesperson with the Stockton City Manager's Office, Oct. 2020 is also when the city began getting involved in the food truck park situation.
"Our code does not currently allow for food truck parks on private property," said Cochran. "We worked with them on a temporary activity permit."
The temporary permit expired six months later, and when the owners applied for an extension, city staff members denied the extension.
"We have experienced discrimination from the city staff," said Foster. "The city manager, Harry Black, has just been completely unfair with us."
In the denial of the extension, the City of Stockton cited insufficient parking, increased traffic in the neighborhood surrounding the food truck park, and a reduction in the amount of parking spaces available in the nearby neighborhood as a result of the park.
A city report obtained by ABC10 indicates that there were no verified calls for complaints regarding increased neighborhood traffic before the denial was issued.
According to the city's report, police and code enforcement officers were called to the business 18 times during the initial six-months of the temporary permit and 29 times after the permit expired.
The city staff's denial also stated that the business needed to obtain a commercial rental business license as opposed to a license for a podcast studio, which Stocklandia owners held at the time.
"Every time they gave us a rule and say 'you have to do this', we would abide by that rule," Foster said. "It almost felt like they were getting mad that we were smart enough to be able to reconcile in that rule without breaking any codes."
After the extension was denied, the owners appealed to the city, eventually taking the issue to the city's Planning Commission. Days before the Planning Commission meeting in August, code enforcement officers showed up at the park on reports that food trucks were parked overnight and were plugged into unpermitted electrical equipment causing a citation to be issued.
"From April to now, which is a long time, we've really had to just hold on, and it's just been a constant fight" said Foster.
The Planning Commission asked that conditions be made to the temporary permit before allowing an extension, a move which the food truck park owners also appealed.
Five days after the meeting, the business received their first fine from code enforcement regarding the electrical work which was still out of compliance, according to city documents. Another fine was issued for the same reason in October.
The appeal is scheduled to be heard by Stockton's City Council during a meeting in January which owners say they plan on attending. Until the appeal is heard, the food truck park owners are still allowed to operate under the temporary permit, Cochran says.
"We are still set to go in front of City Council on Jan. 11, just to kind of plead our case and show exactly the unfairness" Foster said.
For now, Foster and his business partners no longer believe that they can maintain the food truck park at its location. Their last day open is Thursday.
"The basis of this was to just create a melting pot for the city of Stockton, bring people together," Foster said. "They should be trying to work with small businesses, especially small businesses made up of individuals that come from that city, not trying to force them out."
Foster expects to have a new food truck park opened at a different location in a year or year and a half, when the city is slated to create new ordinance allowing food truck parks.
"We recognize that food trucks are popular, and people are interested in this particular type of activity," Cochran said. "We are working on an ordinance that would allow for that type of activity."
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