Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

good evening and welcome to the may 27th 2026 regular meeting of the planning commission if i could have the roll call please commissioner deal is not present commissioner eddie here vice chair sing here chair hicks here commissioner well is not present commissioner lyden here commissioner mcnichol is walking in. She's present. She is present. We do have a quorum. Perfect.

We will go on to the minutes from May 13th of 2026.

If we may, if I interject the minutes were the incorrect attachment, so we are going to reject those because they were not the correct minutes as described in the agenda and we'll add them the correct minutes to the next agenda at the next meeting.

Okay, so we don't have any minutes for tonight, then how about that I do they need to vote on them still and reject them.

Mr Burke.

Was there not a quorum that was here during that meeting that could vote now?

There was. The minutes that were provided to the commission were the incorrect minutes in the packet.

Have the correct minutes been presented now?

No. They're the incorrect ones.

No, they shouldn't adopt incorrect minutes.

OK, so don't.

Wait until they've actually received the correct minutes.

OK.

okay so we will move on is that correct okay uh comments by the public uh we'll move on to public hearings request for the planning commission to adopt a resolution recommending city council amend lodi municipal code title 9 public peace morals and welfare chapter 9.18 vending on street sidewalks and private property to revise regulations related to mobile food vending including but not limited to permit requirements, location standards, and operational regulations. Applicant, City of Lodi, seek with status exempt for section 15061 , general rule exemption, and section 15378, as the ordinance is not project.

Cynthia. Yes, good evening, Chair Hicks and commissioners. Tonight, this presentation will be provided by our senior committee improvement officer who's joining us, and his name is Johnny Andrews.

Good evening Planning Commission. My name is Johnick Andrews. I'm a Senior Code Enforcement Officer within CDD. Today we're going to be going over the proposed revisions to LMC 9-18045, which is our food truck ordinance pursuant to City Council direction. Currently our mobile food vendor regulations state that all permitted vendors must have a City issued annual permit Those permit numbers are capped based off of the population. In addition to the cap, our ordinance allows us to review county health compliance, fire life safety requirements, parking and location restrictions, hours of operations, and waste disposal and cleanliness requirements. On April 15, CDD presented potential amendments to our food truck ordinance to city council. This was due to concerns regarding the food permit cap that we currently have, unpermitted vending, enforcement challenges, and public health and safety. During the meeting, council provided direction for us to do the following things. The first one would be eliminate the numerical permit cap. The second one was regulate mobile vendors through permitting safety and operational standards. And the third one was restrict food vending operations within the DMU zoning west of the railroad tracks. There's a couple of key changes that we're proposing for this. For this section, the first one is going to be eliminate the city-wide cap for permitted vendors. Again, it's going to be prohibit food vendors west of the railroad tracks within the DMU. In that, we added and updated operational standards related to noise, queuing, circulation, and noise prevention. It also addresses residential compatibility standards. It strengthens sanitation, safety, lighting, and cleanup requirements. It also maintains the county health permits, our local business license, and it maintains the fire life safety requirements. It also established clear enforcement suspension and revocation procedures. Regarding the environmental assessment for CEQA, We are exempt due to the section 15061 and 15378. The basis for our exemption is that this ordinance does not authorize physical development or construction, and it can be seen with certainty that there are no possibility the amendments may have significant effect on an environment. And that's all I have for you guys today. If you guys have any questions, I'm here.

Thank you very much. Any questions of the commissioners? Go ahead.

So for the prohibition on vending within the DMU, would that apply during things like farmer's market or street fair or events of that nature?

No, they're only going to apply to mobile vendors who operate within the city on a daily basis, so not the special events.

OK, because I could see kind of how it's stated right now. There could potentially be, like, if you had a downtown business owner who got grumpy about there being the lobster truck outside or something like that, that they might try to use this against that. I don't know if it's appropriate to make that clarification in the language or not, but that just wasn't immediately clear to me on the read-through.

Noted.

Thank you. So currently there's a 25 vendor cap, is that correct?

Correct and there's 10 people on the waiting list and it referred that maybe there's more that have wanted to apply correct there's 10 on the waiting list right now, for example, today I given out to permit applications, we probably give out about five per week or so.

And how many of the food trucks operate say you know 300 days a year. in the city that are in that 25? Are they pretty regular businesses?

I would say a majority of them are established longstanding businesses, yeah.

And has there been any outreach to the brick and mortar restaurants that are not in the DMU to see how they feel about raising the cap?

No, we haven't specifically talked to restaurants, I think the council's concern was we had a handful on the waitlist and because we were so restrictive. We suggested potential options such as increasing the CAP kind of stepping it up or eliminating it altogether and their direction was to completely eliminate the CAP altogether, but, given that the downtown. mixed use zone, particularly within kind of the downtown core around School Street has our kind of concentration of most of the restaurants in town. They were particularly concerned about competition from that perspective, and that's why we limited west of the tracks. If you're in the downtown mixed use area was in consideration of those restaurants so they couldn't have like a food truck parked right outside competing with them.

OK, and then most of the food trucks are in parking lots, correct? Is there any that are actually on the street? Because I noticed the residential was changed. Can you give me an example of maybe where that would affect a current food truck or a spot?

Okay, so the first question was, I believe a majority of them are on private property, correct? I believe we only have two, one or two that are mobile per se. And then what was the other question? My apologies.

Just like an example of where, because I know that we're more restricted in residential areas, but I just want to, is there an example of a food truck that's in a residential area? I just haven't seen one around town.

No, I don't know. There's none in a residential area. The proposed the proposed changes it includes now that it that they can't be within 300 feet of a residential of a residential a single a single dwelling residential okay sorry.

And then just, I'd heard from a couple of the businesses on Cherokee, which already has a lot of food trucks, and they're private, and they were indicating the business has been down about 20% in most restaurants in the city, and they were definitely worried about competition from allowing more food trucks. So just to let the staff know. Noted, thank you.

Yes. Go ahead.

So what is the definition of mobile food vendor? Is it just like trucks, or... I've seen a lot of these days, like next to the Costco, on Harney Lane, the guy used to bring a tent and they put a grill, they sell there, you know, then they wrap it up and they're gone, right? So is that considered mobile?

No, those are not. So those... For what you described, that's completely... Yeah, completely different category. So for our mobile vendors, it's going to be primarily people who have either trailers or your typical taco truck that you would see that they drive, and the kitchen is connected to it. So it does not include the pop-up tent vendors. It does not.

So the mobile can be like the guy was carrying a small. They sell those fruits, and they go on the corner. That's also a safety concern sometimes. They're like, you know, during peak hour next to the school, they're selling their, you know, the fruit and other, you know, chips and like a small. So is that tied to saying the safety issue, what describes here for the revised amendments part of that or?

Now this would just apply to food trucks and trailers that are pulled behind a truck that have like an automobile. So there's a separate category and there's a separate code section that follows just behind this code section that applies to pop-up vendors. And we are actively discussing issues with those and enforcement challenges with a lot of those. Kind of similar to this, there's a lot of them that are coming in and not getting their permits. They're not getting their license through. The Department of Health at the county level, they're not complying with other health and safety issues. So we're looking at those and are actively trying to figure out a strategy to address those. But that will be kind of on a separate track. But there those are addressed in the code section following this, I believe. I think this is nine point one eight. And it's I believe nine point one nine applies to pop ups. But there are some other crossover sections within this code that defy this code section. That defines a conveyance to include those carts and kind of more pop up type type tents that you might find that also operate, not just on private property but in public spaces and require encroachment permits through public works.

so sometimes like you will see like two or three trucks in the parking lot business like a liquid store in front of like two three trucks parking so is that city sometime when the issue that there's any limitation for any issues like in case something emergency trucks needs to be there in the parking lot so you're too crowded the people park their car and is there you guys have any defined guidelines for that that hey

Can be only one or two or three depending based on the area or just yes sir yeah so those guidelines are in there, the guidelines specifically state that they cannot block fire access pedestrian walkways and a couple other things that you were touching on So yes, in regards to the. How many on one property? Those would not be under this code section. There's another code section that authorizes and enforces for mobile food parks. So anything over three, I believe, is considered a mobile food park, and it's not subject to this code right here. It has its own set of built out codes.

In that separate code section requires a use permit, depending on the quantity of the food truck park and would either be a minor use permit or Commission use permit and those say if they if a person owns, for example, an old used car lot and they want to convert it to a food truck park. that would require a use permit and that would come before you and those would have conditions of approval with them along with requirements for a permanent restroom on site. They would have requirements for ADA access and those sorts of things, almost as if they were a built structure, but there are parameters within the development code that enforces those standards and would be included as conditions of approval if they were to apply for a use permit.

So basically, is the city responsible for the safety or is it going to go county health department for the safety concern, like cleanliness or any other related to the food in case somebody got sick while they're having a food?

Well, so our code, it does address the cleanliness of it. It doesn't address if somebody was to get sick, that portion would be handled through San Joaquin County.

Got it. Thank you. That's all I have.

Anybody else any questions?

So how much are the fees for a food truck? So a new food truck is going to be $150 and renewals are going to be $75 next yearly. Yes, sir.

yeah it's a pretty affordable level permit, but it does allow us to attach conditions of approval to the permit so, then we can go out and enforce them so. As our team is out in the field, if they know someone has a permit they can say oh you're not following the rules which you agreed to when you applied for this permit and that's how like our checks and balances are enforced.

And then, do they pay sales tax to the city.

Do they collect. I would assume that if they're required under state law, I know there's some little exemptions.

Well, they have to have a sales tax number. I don't know that everything they sell is taxable, but to the degree that they sell taxable items, they're paying sales tax. Compared to like what would a regular restaurant in Lodi be? What would be taxable is the same. It's not about the restaurant. It's about the type. So certain food products are taxable, certain are not. And so they would fall under those same rules. They would have to have a tax ID number. Thank you.

So you guys mentioned that in the medical permit cap, I mean, how many number, who's going to decide that as council? They're going to say, hey, we're going to issue 25, 50 total throughout the city limits, or who's going to decide that? Based on what? They're going to decide, hey.

It's a it as it's written right now the code states that it's based on population it's a percentage of population and. The proposal that we brought to Council couple months ago was to consider options for increasing that based on population, so a larger quantity per. Like pro rated per population and that automatically increases as the population increases, however, their suggestion was to have tried trial period and let's see how it goes and completely remove that CAP. So that's how the red lines are drafted that are in your packet tonight.

Additionally, if I may add before we propose this, we did check with a lot of the neighboring cities, and we were one of the few cities that actually had a permit cap for the number of vendors as well.

I don't know if you've seen city of later updated on the east side of that. What exit is that they have? make one of the Indian guy, he owns that, he convert into the food. I mean, that's what they, all the trucks were parked at one location.

So that would be that food truck park that I mentioned, and they would require, we would require a use permit for that. And we amended the code a couple years ago to allow food truck parks, and we consulted with our neighboring jurisdictions, looked at what Stockton's doing, lay throughout Manteca, and we kind of followed their lead in amending the code sections for those. We have yet to have a food truck park be proposed We almost had one on Cherokee and they decided not to move forward. But we do have that as available option. And sometimes when folks are looking just for kind of a temporary use, we kind of mention it as an economic development tool to bring you know, life onto a vacant parcel because there would be less requirements than actually constructing a multi-story building or something per se. It just requires certain standards of the site such as that the site's paved and has a restroom available. And oftentimes that seems to align with used car lots because they already have a restroom, they already have kind of this open area paved, some of them already have, you know, an awning that you could eat under for shade. So we've seen some interest from some older used car lots, especially on Cherokee.

So Cynthia, the last question. Is any opposition from the local restaurant? Are you going to increase the cap? So they're going to say, hey, we're losing a little bit of business. Or I don't know if you guys are going to say, hey, we're going to get 50. So it's going to affect maybe a little bit their business as well, right?

Yeah, we haven't received any specific comments related from restaurants, but as I mentioned to Commissioner Lydon, we did intentionally at the direction of council limit in the kind of the downtown core area. We hadn't heard anything specific to Cherokee where a lot of them are operating, I think already, but there are location requirements, but we haven't received any specific comments from any of the existing restaurants.

Did you say there's a trial period for this raising the cap?

That was one of our suggestions when we went to City Council. The city manager suggested that they could try it out. You can always amend the code later. So say let's say we try it out for a year, and we find that there's 200 food trucks, and they're everywhere, and we're like, Whoa, that's a little bit. You know too much, then we could revert back to the cap system, so these are the permits are provided on an annual basis. And so it will be up to us, maybe we try it out for a year and see you know this doesn't really work or whoa that was a little bit too much let's really back in a little bit so there's that opportunity potentially to always amend the code again.

And then will this affect like a winery event? The things that, because a lot of times they'll have food trucks. Will they be the same that will supply for a special use permit for their event and it's? Correct. Okay.

I would assume kind of that there's going to be a market saturation at some point too. There's not going to be, you know, a thousand food vendors in here because we just don't have the population to support that. So we don't have a cap, but we do because it's how many people are here and willing to pay. So that makes sense to me.

Yeah, and we have received positive feedback from those on the waitlist. So one of the young gentlemen came to City Council and he had a halal truck that he operates in Stockton, but he lives in Lodi. He went to high school in Lodi and grew up here and he's really looking forward to opening his food truck in Lodi.

Thank you, I should open the public portion and then I can close the public portion so that now we can come back to a discussion or emotion or any other questions.

I will just say that my fellow Commissioner pointed out where the exemptions are to me, so I missed that on my read through, but it for my question about things like farmers market and street parents stuff so i'm good on that as written 9.18 point 060 for the record.

Good catch, thank you for mentioning that anyway had read it. Anybody like to make a motion.

I move the Planning Commission adopt the resolution recommending that City Council determine the proposed ordinance is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act, CEQA, pursuant to CEQA Guideline Sections 15061B3 and 15378, and approve amendments to Chapter 9.18 of the Lodi Municipal Code, Vending on Streets, Sidewalks, and Private Property, related to vendor permit caps, operational standards, residential neighborhood protections, downtown mixed use restrictions, and hours of operation. We have a motion.

I'll second.

We have a second.

There's no more discussion. Could we please have the vote? Commissioner Eddy. Yes. Vice Chair Singh.

Yes.

Chair Hicks. Yes. Commissioner McNichol. Yes. Commissioner Lydon.

No.

Passes 4-1.

Thank you very much. We're going to move on to planning matters and follow up items.

Yes, there was no SPARC meeting today. But we will be having another planning commission meeting on June 10. We have one item. It's a lot split. That will be on that agenda. However, June 24 planning commission and July 8 planning commissions have been canceled. And we may or may not be holding July 22. to be determined if we have any applications for those. I did also want to mention there will be a special City Council workshop on our anticipated for June ninth at six p.m. concerning annexation and growth in the city. That will be a workshop with Council. So if you're interested, please attend. I don't know if they have decided if they'll be in Council chambers or held at another location. So stay tuned. That agenda should be posted soon as soon as that meeting date is finalized. That was June 9, tentatively? June 9 at 6 PM is our anticipated.

Can you just go over the schedule real quick again? I think I missed some dates.

Yes, no problem. June 10th, we do have an item, one item, so it should be a quick meeting. June 24th, both SPARK and Planning Commission will be canceled. June 8th, both SPARK and Planning Commission will be canceled. And they're, oh, sorry, July. Yes, thank you. July 8th. And then July 22nd may or may not have an item on the agenda. We're still trying to work a couple things out with an applicant. But it's potentially on July 22nd.

Thank you.

No problem.

I think that takes us through announcements and correspondence, actions of the city council, actions of the site. Plan Architectural Review Committee. We're on to comments by the planning commissioners and staff on agenda items. Then I will adjourn the meeting. Thank you.