ARLINGTON, VA—Jacksonville food truck operators have won a critical legal victory in their challenge to rules that have made it difficult to operate in most of the city.  In a ruling from the bench yesterday, the Onslow County Superior Court granted plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction against the signage restrictions that Jacksonville, NC, only imposes on food trucks. As a result of the injunction, the plaintiff food truck owners will no longer need to follow the city’s food truck signage restrictions for the remainder of the lawsuit and can instead follow Jacksonville’s general sign code. This will allow the food trucks to use 15-foot so called feathered signs due to their feather-like appearance, as well as electronic signs on the side of their trucks. Both of these are commonly used by food trucks in other towns, as well as by countless other Jacksonville businesses.

 Before the injunction, food trucks were limited to one 5 foot ×5 foot A-frame sign which must be within 20 feet of the truck and food trucks were also not allowed to use electronic signage.

The ruling comes as part of a years-long legal effort filed by the Institute for Justice (IJ) on behalf of Nicole Gonzalez, who seeks to host food trucks on her property and food truck operators Tony Proctor and Ray Raymond.

Under Jacksonville’s burdensome zoning rules, food trucks were effectively banned in over 96 percent of the city. After the district court dismissed the lawsuit, the trucks and property owner appealed, and the North Carolina Court of Appeals agreed with plaintiffs that all of their claims should proceed.

“The government is not allowed to restrict speech just because the officials do not want food trucks to compete with their friends’ restaurants,” said IJ Attorney Robert Fellner. “These laws don’t just hurt food truck owners like Tony, but they also make Jacksonville’s roads more dangerous by making it harder for drivers to find what they are looking for.”

“Sign codes can make or break my business,” said plaintiff Tony Proctor. “This injunction will be a huge help. But there’s still work to be done, and I look forward to working with the Institute for Justice to see the rest of this case through.”

“It is not the government’s job to pick winners and losers in the marketplace. That choice belongs to consumers,” said IJ Senior Attorney Justin Pearson. “That becomes doubly true when the government tries to decide who is allowed to speak.”

IJ is a public interest law firm with a mission to protect individual’s constitutional rights. In the past, IJ has stood up for the rights of food truck owners to earn an honest living all over the country by defeating similar ordinances that limit where food trucks may operate. Nearby, in Carolina Beach, IJ’s lawsuit led town officials to repeal an unconstitutional law which required food truck owners to also own a brick-and-mortar store; in Fort Pierce, Florida, IJ helped defeat a law that banned food trucks within 500 feet of an established restaurant; and in Louisville, IJ beat a law that blocked food trucks from serving within 150 feet of any establishment that serves food. 

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 To arrange interviews on this subject, journalists may contact Phillip Suderman, IJ’s Communications Project Manager, at [email protected] or (850) 376-4110. More information on the case is available at: https://ij.org/case/north-carolina-food-trucks/