A Summer Staple Is Becoming Merely a Sweet Memory

Heat waves are dancing a hula outside the front door. Humidity hangs like a hot fog. The prospect of trekking all the way to the freezer section at a local store holds little appeal.

In the good old days, relief was only a jingle away. But it’s getting harder to find ice cream trucks weaving through many Orange County neighborhoods, due to noise and zoning restrictions and some outright bans.

In places like Seal Beach and Newport Beach, no ice cream trucks or mobile food vendors are allowed. In Rossmoor and down the road in Huntington Beach, it’s still possible to sprint out the door for a Choco-Taco or Big Stick.

Tom Ahrens, supervising environmental health specialist for the county, said vendors who operate within city boundaries need a county permit and also must satisfy often extensive city requirements. The only restrictions placed on neighborhood ice cream sellers in the unincorporated areas is that they must have a permit.

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Many cities have clamped down on food vendors of all types after receiving noise and loitering complaints from residents. When the city of Costa Mesa passed a ban in May on noise amplification on food and ice cream trucks, Mayor Joe Erickson said people were entitled to “the quiet enjoyment” of their homes.

Ahrens said the vendors themselves sometimes spark complaints.

“Not all of these are your mom-and-pop ventures anymore,” he said. “It seems to be a battle between the interests of a neighborhood and people just wanting to make a living.”

In cities such as Santa Ana, Anaheim and Fullerton, local ordinances regulating ice cream and food trucks are pages long.

In Santa Ana, trucks can’t linger in any one place for too long. They’re allowed to play music but must turn it off when they stop. In Fullerton, there’s no music or amplified noise of any kind allowed and trucks can’t stay in any one spot for more than 15 minutes. In Anaheim, ice cream sellers must display four separate permits and licenses.

In San Juan Capistrano, ice cream trucks are allowed as long as drivers carry a permit. But there aren’t any trucks currently operating in the city.

Neighborhood ice cream sales are allowed in Mission Viejo, but the trucks can’t make any noise. Only three trucks currently operate there, according to the city’s community development department.

The increasing restrictions frustrate sellers like Jay Sarin, manager at Mel-O-Dee Ice Cream in Santa Ana. He fears increasing regulations are pushing one of the last nostalgic blessings of summer toward the fate of full-service gas stations and drive-in theaters.

“When I was a kid, it definitely was the highlight of the day, just the anticipation of [the truck] coming around,” Sarin said of his customers, 80% of whom are children.

He said that, because of growing restrictions, the business has seen a drop in drivers in the past few years who lease the trucks from Mel-O-Dee.

Orange County, of course, isn’t the only place where nostalgia bumps against changing tolerances. Rumor had it that actor Clint Eastwood was motivated to run for mayor of the seaside community of Carmel in 1986 because he was stopped from eating ice cream on the sidewalk.

“Well, we did have an ordinance about spilling food on sidewalks,” Carmel City Clerk Jeanne Brehmer said last week about the Eastwood tale, “but there’s nothing that says you can’t eat ice cream. We are pretty strict about fast food.”

Perspective is a weekly column highlighting trends and events that define Orange County or taking an in-depth look at issues affecting the county. Readers are invited to call Los Angeles Times correspondent Jean O. Pasco at (714) 564-1052 or send an e-mail to Jean.Pasco@latimes.com