'Food truck only' signs erected in Downtown Orlando after confusion, citations

Two bright brand-new signs are up, chained to the parking meters in Downtown Orlando for the new "food truck only" parking spots on Central Boulevard.  They are the result of The News Station taking drivers' parking complaints straight to City Hall.  

"Finally, they put these sandwich boards up to deter people from parking there," said Mark Cavallini. 

Those parking spots were at the center of a controversy.  They recently changed from open parking  to  reserved parking for the new ride-share hub.  Now, only food trucks can park there 24 hours a day.  

People who've parked for years there are suddenly getting ticketed, even towed, because they weren't clearly marked.  

"It was very confusing, contractive, very wordy," said Cavallini.

He manages Casey's, the bar across the street from those parking spots, and has been dealing with customers who are upset they've been ticked and sometimes even towed.  According to a spokesperson for the City of Orlando, between May 3 -- when these spaces were turned into food truck parking only -- and June 6, 98 parking tickets were issued in those four spaces alone.      

Food truck operators were upset too.  With cars illegally parked in the "food truck only" spaces, they were left with nowhere to set up shot.  That cost them time and money.

 "Come loaded with food that we couldn't sell because there'd be cars parked in the food truck parking area," said Fernando Melgarejo.  

After FOX 35 took those complaints to City Hall and continued to follow up, the new signs were put up where users can't miss them.  Those give clarity to everyone on who can park there.  

"Now that the signs are there, it's been a help.  A big help," said Melgarejo.