Louisville Metro Extends Metered Parking to Food Trucks

Food truck vendors have met with Louisville Metro Government officials to further ease restrictions on operations. Vendors can now park up to four hours at parking meters, without extra hassle.Vendors met with local officials from Inspections, Licenses and Permits and other agencies on Tuesday to ask permission to set up at parking meters, paying only for the time they occupy the space. Under the conditions no additional permit or application will be required. Vendors must move from the location after four hours or apply for a permit if they remain at that location longer.“Previously we would have to have applied to bag a meter, basically buying the meter for a 24 hour period,” said Leah Stewart who owns Louisville Dessert Truck. “We would have then, typically for a lunch service, used the meter for four hours and then the public would have been locked out of the meter, essentially for the remainder of the day," she said.The regulations recently passed by the Metro Council still apply, but the new conditions help vendors who often only spend four hours in one location anyway.“So basically this opens up most of the metered spaces assuming they’re not within 150 feet of a restaurant selling the same type of food the food truck is selling. It opens up just a whole new world for us," Stewart said.Some rules do apply. Vendors cannot sell into the street and cannot reserve any location. They will also be expected to put coins into multiple meters if their vehicle extends into more than one spot.“All in all this was a wonderful meeting, with a room full of Metro's decision makers who could say yes, no immediately and make it happen. They really did seem supportive of Food Trucks and want us to be successful,” wrote Stewart in an email to WFPL.