The Lawton City Council and the City of Lawton are hoping to rein in unlicensed food service trucks in the Lawton area with a new city code that regulates the mobile food businesses. At tonight's City Council meeting, the council is planning to vote on these new codes.

Recently, it has come to the city's attention how much food trucks have grown in popularity, and a concern has grown that there are no codes on the city's books to regulate these food truck. With a committee comprised of city council members, restaurant and food truck owners, regulations have been created in line with state law.

Mobile food truck
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According to Lawton City Planner Richard Rogalski, local food truck owners are already in cpompliance with state rules. But, by creating its own regulations, the city can enforce the rules themselves, and the food trucks have more options to where they can set up shop, allowing food trucks to set up at parks whenever they want, as long as they have a valid food truck permit. This was a previous sore spot for operators, as the city had restricted trucks from public property, unless the trucks were part of an event.

City regulations will not circumvent state laws, such as those that prevent trucks from staying in one place for longer than 12 hours. This is against state law. Currently, where trucks can set up for the day isn't strictly regulated by the city. The hope is, with clear guidelines, it will support local vendors, as it will make it more difficult for trucks based in other cities to get a permit from the city and come to Lawton.

If voted in by the City Council, the new ordinances will go into effect by the end of July.

Woman with French fries and ketchup at food truck
photo courtesy of ThinkStock/Getty Images
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source: KSWO News

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