Food truck courts are popping up all over the Central Valley. Are there limits?
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- Merced and Ceres each approved three new food truck plazas in 18 months.
- Local leaders debate limits to balance grub hubs with sit-down restaurants.
- Grub hubs lower startup barriers and expand food offerings in underserved cities.
It’s no secret that more and more food truck plazas are popping up across the Central Valley. What’s lesser known, however, is why. And is there a limit?
Merced and Ceres have approved three applications each for food truck plazas (colloquially known as “grub hubs”) in the past 18 months. For Merced, that brings the number from three – which were approved between 2018 and 2024 – to now six.
Ceres’ first plaza was approved by the Planning Commission in April 2024. Commissioner Gary Condit said Modesto spearheaded the movement of establishing them in Stanislaus County with the opening of Modesto Grub Hubs in May 2019.
“It was honestly ahead of its time,” Condit said. “And now Modesto, (Ceres city staff) told me, has eight grub hub locations.”
Jonnie Lan, Merced’s interim planning manager, said the city does not have a limit on the number of grub hubs, though the City Council could impose one.
Similarly, Modesto and Ceres have not limited how many grub hubs can open within the cities, though the issue has been raised at Ceres Planning Commission meetings.
“I was the one who brought up the question,” Condit said. “Now the City Council is going to discuss whether there should be a limit of three, five, or if there should be a limit at all.”
Why would cities put a cap on establishing grub hubs?
“I personally think there should be a limit because you have to balance traditional mom-and-pop restaurants with this new trend of grub hubs,” Condit said. “I just don’t want to (have) grub hubs only and forget about the high-market restaurants and quality, sit-down restaurants that residents in our city want.”
Community and cost play roles in rising popularity of grub hubs
Ashley and Vito Ranuio found themselves with three extra acres of land after purchasing almost 12 acres at Whitmore Avenue and Morgan Road in Ceres seven years ago.
The land was purchased so they could build a yard and office for their company, Vito Trucking, which they moved from Modesto. The Ranuios didn’t immediately know what to do with the leftover space, but after a visit to a “unique” food park during their honeymoon in Belize, the couple decided to bring the idea to Ceres.
“My mission is just to create a safe environment where people of all ages can gather, just enjoy life and have a strong sense of community,” Ashley Ranuio said.
When the Ranuios’ project was presented to the Ceres Planning Commission, Condit said giving families somewhere to go appealed to him.
Rajkanwer Singh, property manager at Valley Eats in Merced, said the owners opened the grub hub to increase the variety of food in Merced.
“Merced, it needs more business and more opportunities,” Singh said. “And people who live in Merced need to eat in Merced and not travel outside places.”
In addition to grub hubs being community gathering spots, Lan said, they’re a less expensive way for business owners to get their foot in the door.
Before becoming the interim planning manager for Merced, Lan was an associate planner for Modesto from 2014 to 2021. She said the lower upfront cost of food trucks/trailers was a major reason Modesto implemented grub hubs.
“There was a real push to support the entrepreneurship of our community, because Modesto and Merced, they’re disadvantaged communities,” Lan said. “So the pressure was to try and accommodate that entrepreneurship of people, to try and give them a pathway to business ownership, and that was one way that people could do that.”
Christopher Avila and Estella Ivarra own three trailers and one truck selling aguas frescas in Stanislaus and Merced counties. Avila, who told the Merced Sun-Star in July that the duo are planning to open a brick and mortar, said it was easier for him to get a loan for a food truck than a store.
Condit said he has heard other success stories of food vendors who open trucks or trailers first and later open a traditional restaurant.
Options limited for food truck owners in cities with strict ordinances
Without a grub hub location, not every aspiring food truck owner can operate in some Central Valley cities.
In Ceres, the city implements an ordinance for food vendors that operate independently on private property. Only 20 conditional use permits are issued for such vendors.
Mobile food vendors that operate in grub hubs in Ceres are not subject to that municipal code. The grub hub itself holds the conditional use permit, and the amount of food vendors that can operate inside of it is determined during the permit approval process.
In short, if not operating inside a grub hub, only 20 food trucks can park on private property to serve food in Ceres.
Though Modesto does not limit the number of mobile food vendors permitted within the city, it regulates the number of food trucks permitted on commercial or industrial properties.
Once more than four food trucks are established on a property, any additional trucks require the property owner to apply for a development plan review for a grub hub location.
“There is a need for food truck parks so these vendors can operate and stay in business,” said Ranuio, who’s naming her Ceres hub The Truck Stop Food Park. “You’re talking about hard working people who are running food trucks, who had to save and work their tails off just to afford a food truck.”
Mobile food vendors looking to apply for a spot at a grub hub can contact:
- Ashley Ranuio with The Truck Stop Food Park, 1379 E. Whitmore Ave. in Ceres, ashleyranuio@gmail.com
- Gabriela Bustos with Downtown Food Plaza, 722 I St. in Modesto, downtownfoodplaza.com/contact
- Juan Rosas with Eden Plaza, H and W. Main streets in Merced, 650-704-0520
- Ernie Ochoa with Downtown Grubs, Martin Luther King Jr. Way and 16th Street in Merced, 209-704-7653
This story was originally published August 5, 2025 at 9:35 AM with the headline "Food truck courts are popping up all over the Central Valley. Are there limits?."
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