This chapter is intended to implement regulations for sidewalk vending that comply with the requirements of state law under Senate Bill No. 946 (Chapter 459, Statutes 2018), while protecting the public health, safety, and welfare. In accordance with SB 946, the City Council makes the following findings in support of this chapter:
(A) Unless properly regulated, sidewalk vending poses a unique risk to the public welfare including but not limited to, impacts on pedestrian traffic and safety and risks to the public health from potentially unsanitary food preparation.
(B) Sidewalk vendors' ability to readily move throughout the community and to be located in or near parks, schools, and other places frequented by children warrants imposing reasonable regulatory measures directly related to objective health, safety, and welfare concerns, and the permit requirements of this chapter.
(C) The permit requirements enacted by this chapter are necessary for collecting adequate information about vendors and vending operations within city limits to facilitate contact between the city and its sidewalk vendors and to ensure that vending does not adversely affect the public welfare.
(D) Compliance with generally applicable laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, requires the city to restrict vending in specified locations to the extent necessary to ensure safe and unobstructed access along public sidewalks.
(E) Standards for maintaining access to building entrances, driveways, parking areas, and fire hydrants are necessary to promote driver and pedestrian safety, and to promote effective fire protection and law enforcement.
(F) Sidewalks near school grounds and the Community Center, a public recreational facility offering after-school youth programs, pose increased concerns for traffic and child safety given the concentration of minors in these densely developed areas and the increased traffic from parental pick-ups and drop-offs. Unless restricted, commercial vending at such locations when school or youth programs are in session would result in overcrowded sidewalks and compromised public safety as minors walk into the street to avoid pedestrian traffic.
(G) The density of existing commercial retailers and pedestrian traffic in certain public locations, relative to the capacity of public resources therein, warrants identifying such locations as overcrowded. Compliance with the requirements of state and federal disability access standards and the requirements of the public welfare for adequate emergency access and pedestrian mobility in public spaces requires the city to prohibit sidewalk vending in overcrowded locations.
(H) Vending in a manner that creates a public nuisance, including vending within residential zones in violation of reasonable limits on hours of operation or at street corners where a crowd or vendor equipment would create visual obstructions to turning drivers, constitutes an objective harm to the public welfare.
(I) Prohibiting sidewalk vending too close to freeway off-ramps and on-ramps is directly related to objective health, safety, and welfare concerns. Operating at the entrances and exits of freeways would hinder the flow of traffic and increase the risk of collisions between vehicles and pedestrians.
(J) Persons, who maintain encroachments in the public right-of-way, including sidewalks, have a responsibility to contribute to the administrative and liability costs caused by such encroachments that would otherwise be borne by the community.
(K) Fraud or misrepresentation in the course of sidewalk vending constitutes an objective harm to the health, safety, and welfare of the city's residents.
(L) Fraud or misrepresentation in the application for a sidewalk vending permit constitutes an objective harm to the health, safety, and welfare of the city's residents.
(M) Certain restrictions on vending operations and locations are necessary to reduce the city's legal exposure to liability for personal injury or claims for damage and litigation due to the use of public property by vendors, the costs of which would be borne by city taxpayers.
(N) Restrictions on what merchandise can be sold are necessary to prevent the proliferation of illegal sales of heavily-regulated goods such as cannabis, tobacco, alcohol, and adult-oriented material in furtherance of the public health, safety, and welfare.
(Ord. 1309, passed 7-7-21)