After extending a 45 day moratorium on issuing licenses to food truck vendors to 90 days last month, the Del Mar City Council is now planning to pass another extension of the ban, this time for 10 ½ months.

Interim Urgency Ordinance 877 was originally passed in November 2012 and should again be extended “in order to complete the necessary research and drafting of an ordinance to present to the Planning Commission and, upon the Commission’s recommendation, the City Council for formal adoption,” according to a city council staff report to be presented at a meeting next Tuesday, February 19.

The council says a specific set of regulations is necessary due to concern for public health and safety. Critics have charged that complaints largely originate from brick-and-mortar businesses who resent the competition their lower-overhead mobile counterparts provide, and note that the county’s Department of Environmental Health already conducts annual inspections to ensure food safety, just as they do at traditional restaurants.

Del Mar points to other coastal Southern California cities including Santa Monica, Manhattan Beach, and Hermosa Beach, which have all recently enacted regulations specifically addressing mobile food trucks. The city says it will look to these other locales for language that could be used in drafting their own report.