Los Banos council directs staff to allow temporary shade for food trucks and draft ordinance changes

The Los Banos City Council heard an update June 2025 on its mobile food vendor ordinance and directed staff to draft a comprehensive amendment while allowing temporary pop-up shade and chairs this summer.

Community and Economic Development Director Susie Elms told the council staff held a May 27 stakeholder meeting with about 30 people representing roughly 12 mobile-food businesses and that vendors emphasized the need for furniture, flexible orientations on private sites, lower permit fees and stronger enforcement against illegal vending near city limits. "The request really focused on just allowing tables and chairs and canopies temporarily that would be moved at the end of the day," Elms said.

Elms reviewed the city’s current rules: separate standards for vending in the public right-of-way and on private property; a 300-foot prohibition around schools, parks and churches for right-of-way vending; time-and-movement rules (for example, a vendor in a residential right-of-way must keep moving every 10 minutes); and a private-property rule that mobile vending must be accessory to a primary commercial or industrial use, not a stand‑alone use in a vacant parking lot. She said the ordinance currently prohibits site furniture, freestanding signs and limits trucks to "one unit per 1,000 square feet, not to exceed three on the same parcel at the same time."

Vendors and supporters who spoke urged relief from summer heat. A vendor identified in the public comment period as a mobile food vendor said, "Last week on Friday, it was a 106. Saturday, a 107. We are doing the best to protect our customers from the heat," and asked the council for an emergency change to allow shade canopies that would be removed at day’s end.

City attorney and staff advised that a full urgency ordinance requires an imminent threat to public health, welfare or safety and a unanimous council vote; it would last only 45 days unless extended with repeat findings. Staff said an urgency ordinance limited to shade during extreme heat likely could meet that threshold but would be difficult to complete and implement quickly because of required public‑hearing procedures. Elms recommended, and council members agreed, that staff prepare short‑term operational guidance to allow temporary pop‑up shade, secured nightly, while drafting a comprehensive ordinance amendment covering temporary and permanent furniture, minor permit flexibility, fee reevaluation, signage (A-frame), and the option to enable food‑truck parks or designated vending hubs.

Council members directed staff to return with draft temporary rules to implement "pop-up" shade relief immediately and to continue work on a broader code update for future council consideration. Staff said temporary shade and chairs would need nightly removal and basic securing measures (sandbags or weights) and that any permanent shade would require building permits and property‑owner approval.

The action is informational and directional: staff will issue temporary guidance to vendors to address heat concerns and will prepare a draft ordinance amendment for later public hearings and council action.

Ending: Council members said they supported a temporary, practical fix for summer heat and emphasized that any long‑term change must preserve property‑owner rights and the visual standards of shopping centers. Staff will return with proposed temporary rules within days and the comprehensive ordinance later in the regular revision process.