Aurora lawmakers should think twice before turning food trucks into a problem that requires an intensive city-government solution.

The city already has rules governing these mobile businesses. They need city business licenses and state food-truck licenses. County health departments inspect them for food safety. The Aurora Fire Department checks fire safety. Trucks cannot park within 175 feet of a restaurant without that restaurant’s permission. They must remain 50 feet from residences and currently can operate only between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.

Before adding another layer of restrictions, the city should ask what problem is it actually trying to solve, and who will pay the price?

There may indeed be places where residents or businesses believe there are “too many” food trucks. But the back story of why this is becoming an issue for city lawmakers makes an important distinction.

Some of the biggest concentrations, including at the targeted East Hampden Avenue and South Chambers Road location, are on large, commercial properties. If private property owners want to allow one food truck — or four — in a parking lot, that decision should belong to the people who own and manage that property, not to city officials deciding that 15,000 square feet is a magic ratio for food-truck density.

Parking, access and traffic concerns are legitimate when they actually interfere with other businesses or public safety. But those problems can be addressed directly by property owners.

They do not automatically prompt arbitrary density limits that could punish food truck operators across the city.

All this matters because food trucks are precisely the kind of entrepreneurial enterprise Aurora ought to be encouraging.

A food truck can provide an entry point into the restaurant business for someone who cannot afford the enormous capital investment required for a brick-and-mortar establishment.

In an economy already burdened by high costs, adding another expensive structure of local requirements, fees and restrictions risks making the American dream even harder to reach.

And food trucks aren’t merely an endpoint.

As Ward II Councilmember Amy Wiles pointed out, many are entrepreneurs trying to “get their foot in the door,” build a business and support their families. Successful food trucks can eventually become successful storefront restaurants. The truck can be the menu proving ground, build a customer base and establish a brand before taking on the commitment of a permanent location.

The reverse is true, too. Established restaurants can use food trucks to expand their brands beyond a single storefront, reach new customers and create another source of revenue. A mobile kitchen can be a business expansion tool, not a threat to traditional restaurants.

It’s harder to quantify but increasingly obvious that food trucks have become part of Aurora’s cultural and gastronomic landscape. They show up at parks and special events. They bring people together in otherwise underused parking lots. As one public commenter observed, the Hampden and Chambers gathering transformed an underutilized property into a neighborhood gathering place without spending a single city dollar.

That’s economic development worth celebrating.

The city is collecting sales-tax revenue from these businesses, too, nearly $398,000 so far this year, according to Sentinel reporting.

Aurora, the counties and the state should enforce existing health, safety and licensing requirements. Businesses that violate those rules should be held accountable.

But there is a profound difference between enforcing reasonable rules and regulating an entire industry because a handful of locations have congestion problems on private property.

Just a few years ago, Aurora and other cities bent over backward to accommodate restaurants during the pandemic, creating outside space that in many places still exists, because they weren’t a problem.

Common sense and an appreciation for something new and different can go a long way here.

The government has a critical role in protecting public health and safety. It does not need to become the referee of every private parking lot. Let the free market work for street tacos sold on Aurora streets.

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