CHICAGO – Last night, the Evanston City Council repealed a provision of its food-truck ordinance that prohibited food trucks based outside of Evanston from operating in the city. The move came after the city spent nearly four years fighting a lawsuit challenging the restriction, which was brought by Beavers Coffee & Donuts, a popular Chicago-based food truck.
When the owners of Beavers Coffee & Donuts started their business in 2011, they wanted to take their truck into Evanston, but the city government turned them away because the city code only allowed owners or agents of existing brick-and-mortar food establishments in Evanston to operate food trucks there. The Liberty Justice Center, a public-interest litigation center, filed a lawsuit challenging the restriction on behalf of Beavers Coffee & Donuts in August 2012. That lawsuit remains pending.
“We’re glad that the City Council has done the right thing and opened up the market for food trucks in Evanston,” said Jacob Huebert, Senior Attorney at the Liberty Justice Center. “With this change, Evanston will respect entrepreneurs’ right to start a business and earn a living, and it will respect Evanston residents’ right to choose the products and services they like best. We hope other cities across Illinois will follow Evanston’s example and remove unnecessary legal barriers that stand in the way of food-truck entrepreneurs and limit consumers’ freedom.”
The next step for Beavers Coffee & Donuts will be to reapply for a license and then, the owners hope, start serving customers in Evanston before the summer is over.
