More food truck courts in Manteca could be served up by the City Council.

Elected leaders when they meet Tuesday at 7 p.m. will consider expanding on the pilot food truck program that has been operating at Library Park along Poplar Avenue since September 2019.

There are currently two food trucks that park there on a regular basis. Before the pandemic hit there were as many as four food trucks.

The idea behind the pilot program was to have food trucks gathered in one location for a long period of time with set hours instead of parking at will throughout the city. Prior to the rules being modified in 2019 to allow them to stay in one spot up to three hours if certain conditions are met, food trucks were only allowed to be in one location for 10 minutes based on the municipal code.

Councilman Gary Singh championed the idea of food courts as a way to bring new life into downtown and avoid food trucks being parked directly in front of brick-and-mortar restaurants.
There are highly success food truck courts in Modesto and Stockton.

The council is being asked to decide if they want staff to identify other potential locations in Manteca for food trucks and return to the council with their suggestions.

A “flash vote” survey sent to 400 residents that registered to weigh in on specific city issues from time-to-time, produced 192 responses.

Of the respondents, 59.4 percent wanted to see more food trucks, 15.6 percent were not sure, 14.4 percent wanted to know how many currently operate in the city, 8.1 percent wanted food trucks banned, and 2.5 percent wanted to see less food trucks.

The fact 6 out of 10 respondents wanted to see more food trucks can be interpreted as an indication the current location isn’t stellar in terms of generating patrons based on the survey results.

That’s because almost three quarters of the respondents have never visited the food court in the past 29 months although almost 60 percent want to see more food trucks in Manteca.

The survey results showed 50.9 percent knew the food trucks were at Library Park but have never patronized them while 24.2 percent weren’t aware the food trucks were at Library Park on a daily basis. Of those responding 23.6 percent said they bought food from the trucks at Library Park.

In response to specific places where people would like to see food trucks in Manteca they indicated anywhere, Woodward Park, south of the 120 Bypass, the old Kmart parking lot, the Orchard Valley parking lot or anywhere in Manteca where there are no transients, and near parks among other spots.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com