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Virginia Beach City Council to vote on food truck regulation Tuesday

The Virginia Beach food truck fight is now in the hands of city council who will make a crucial decision for the mobile businesses.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The Virginia Beach food truck fight is now in the hands of City Council who will make a crucial decision for the mobile businesses.

"We've actually been working in a subcommittee that city council set up for us since February of last year so over a year," said MJ Medlar, the owner of Capt'n Crabby food truck.

She's on that subcommittee and she said they've worked closely with Councilwoman Jessica Abbot and Mayor Bobby Dyer on the ordinances.

Councilwoman Abbott said on her Facebook page that right now, food trucks are working under a "Peddler Permit," which Medlar thinks is outdated.

"The ordinances we're working off of now were based on peddlers from the '70s and ice cream trucks so they allow us to go somewhere and we have to leave every 15 minutes," said Medlar.

So, the ordinance that will come to council to vote on Tuesday will be to change how food trucks are licensed in the city and bring down their fees. It will also no longer require background checks for food truck owners and employees.

"We are supposed to be treated like restaurants but you don't have to get a background check to work at or own a restaurant so we're just trying to even the playing field thereby having us treated like a restaurant on wheels," she said.

The Virginia Beach Restaurant Association said in a letter to the city that they support minimizing operations costs within the city, but not on public streets and most property. Medlar said she's and the subcommittee have also been working with the Restaurant Association.

Right now, Medlar said they mostly go to breweries or other private businesses.

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