The City Council on Monday night decided not to draft ordinances on mobile billboard displays or mobile vendors in Malibu.
Instead, the Council asked that sheriff’s continue enforcing a state law prohibiting vending along Pacific Coast Highway and directed staff to ask the county health department to increase health inspections on food trucks in the city.
The idea of imposing regulations upon food trucks, junk trucks and mobile billboards in the city first came about at a meeting in September when a resident complained of trash and traffic caused by food trucks in the Heathercliff Road and PCH area.
City Attorney Christi Hogin warned Monday that if councilmembers decided to have any new ordinances drafted, the City of Malibu could face legal challenges from vendors. She advised Malibu to wait on current cases against other local cities that were sued for trying to regulate the presence of food trucks.
“Other cities, for a change, are taking the lead in being sued by industry representatives,” Hogin said, poking fun at several lawsuits the city has battled over the past few years, including a current one against the council’s decision to allow field lights at Malibu High School.