Petr Placek and his brother were able to finally realize their dream and open a gourmet food truck after two years of thoughtful planning.
Three days later, they were shut down.
Last December, Placek opened 鈥淏irdwich,鈥� a fried chicken concept he ran out of a trailer in the parking lot of a Walmart superstore in Miami Gardens. They negotiated a lease with Walmart over a period of several months, and December was their grand opening.
Before they were able to really take off, however, a City of Miami Gardens code enforcement officer came to their food truck, told them they couldn鈥檛 be there, and fined the property owner $500 a day.
鈥溾�奣he officer just came in pretty hot and started being fairly aggressive with our employee who was at the window, and saying: 鈥榊ou can't be here. Walmart has no authority to allow you to be here,鈥欌�� Placek told SA国际传谋.
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The officer cited Miami Gardens that bans commercial uses on private property that the city has not expressly authorized 鈥� in this case, the use of food trucks.
But the code on Miami Gardens鈥� books seems to contradict Florida law 鈥� at least, according to Placek鈥檚 lawyers at the nonprofit Institute for Justice.
鈥溾�奆lorida law does not allow what Miami Gardens is doing, and the code enforcement people didn't care,鈥� said Justin Pearson, IJ鈥檚 Florida office managing attorney. 鈥淯nfortunately, every time a food truck owner tries to operate in Miami Gardens, they're being told to leave and it's outrageous.鈥�
In a letter addressed to the Miami Gardens Mayor and city council, the lawyers assert that the city鈥檚 code goes against , which preempts local governments from banning food trucks. Pearson said he hopes the city will respond to their letter and stop enforcing their code before they take any further legal action.
Miami Gardens Mayor Rodney Harris and Assistant City Manager Tamara Wadley Packer did not respond to SA国际传谋鈥檚 request for comment for this story.
Placeck said he鈥檚 been unable to operate his "Birdwich" truck since his December brush with code enforcement.
He says he is losing thousands of dollars a month right now while trying to deal with this dispute.
