ALAMO — By the time Gustavo Lopez pulled up to his usual spot and parked his royal blue food truck on Stone Valley Road, a hungry lunchtime crowd had already gathered.
A little past noon on Friday, a group of laborers laid in the grass listening to a radio, on break from construction, landscaping and cleaning jobs at homes in affluent Alamo. Students from nearby Monte Vista High School, too, were there to greet Lopez.
After 16 years serving up Mexican food favorites on this stretch of Stone Valley Road, loyal customers know where and when to find Lopez and his popular food truck, Tacos La Maquina. His days as a fixture here, however, may soon come to an end.
On Tuesday, the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors approved a parking ban on a portion of the thoroughfare, which fronts Oak Hill Park near the high school. The restrictions extended along the frontage of Oak Hill Park on the south side of Stone Valley Road, east of Glenwood Court. As things stood as of Friday, Lopez must find a new lunch locale.
“What can I say, they are the authority,” Lopez, a Hayward resident, said. “They get to decide what happens.”
The supervisors’ vote was similar to one the town of Danville passed in December, banning the use of an existing 2-hour parking area by food truck vendors as a staging area to conduct their business less than half a mile down the street.
The situation in Alamo appears to have started, according to a county report, when Supervisor Candace Andersen’s office received complaints from a nearby Glenwood Court resident concerned that food trucks parked on the gravel shoulder of Stone Valley Road were creating road hazards. Andersen, who represents the area, directed county traffic engineers to conduct site visits, who reported vehicles parked to patronize food trucks were blocking a bicycle lane.
Andersen also noted that Monte Vista High administrators had recommended restricting parking near the school “because they did not want students leaving campus to go use food trucks during the day.”
However, San Ramon Valley Unified School District spokesperson Ilana Israel Samuels told this news organization that the assertion that MVHS pushed for the parking ban was “not accurate.”
“We in no way requested it,” said the district spokesperson. “The issues with some students leaving campus isn’t going to go away because a food truck went away. So, you know, I just want to make sure it’s clear that this is separate.”
Lopez and two other truck owners, all of whom primarily speak Spanish missed the opportunity Tuesday to speak on the agenda item before the board’s approval. However, Supervisor John Gioia, who noticed the three men sitting in the corner of the board chambers, invited them to come up and speak anyways.
Gioia, who represents West Contra Costa, is now asking for Public Works Director Brian Balbas to provide him with a new report summarizing how the county came to the conclusion to recommend the parking ban on Stone Valley.
“If indeed it is the customer cars that are occasionally encroaching in the traffic lane or bike lane, and not the food truck itself, I think the first approach is always to work with the business owner, to have them encourage their customers to not block the roadway,” Gioia said. “Because then it seems like this small business owner is being penalized for the occasional parking of their customers.”
He also wants to get to the bottom of why it was proposed at the meeting that this plan stemmed from a request from Monte Vista.
At Lopez’s truck on Friday afternoon, Mateo Fernandez, a Monte Vista High student, was among a couple dozen customers who lined up on the dirt and gravel shoulder of Stone Valley Road.
“I love the trucks here. The food in the cafeteria is really bad,” Fernandez said. He added that he thinks that anyone concerned about students walking over to the trucks during school is “overreacting.” “No one cares. I walk past teachers and admin all the time and they don’t mind.”
Jose Ramos, a local house cleaner who has worked in the area for four years, said for workers like him, the food trucks are the most convenient place to a get a quick hot meal before heading back to work on his short break.
Lopez said he’ll keep serving his customers “until (the county) puts up signs.”
“And after that, I don’t know,” he said.
Source: www.mercurynews.com