Anaheim’s City Council is giving city officials the power to impound sidewalk vendors’ equipment, with leaders raising safety concerns about an increase in vendors selling food and various items along busy city streets and sidewalks.
“We think it’s a good tool to have in the toolbox and something that we would like to be able to do,” said Ted White, the city’s planning director.
The unanimous vote Tuesday, Feb. 13, was to update the city’s sidewalk vendor laws to allow code enforcement officers to impound equipment without needing to rely on county health inspectors to do so. Several councilmembers and the public spoke about a proliferation of sidewalk vendors in recent years.
The council will need to vote on the ordinance a second time before it will become law. Sidewalk vendors that violate the city’s laws, including not having business permits, taking up too much space on sidewalks, or not disposing of grease properly could have their equipment taken away and impounded.
The city would hold the equipment for up to 90 days and it would be considered abandoned if left unclaimed. The proposed law also removes some requirements to get a sidewalk vendor permit by eliminating the need to list former residences and prior criminal convictions.
One of the main concerns for city officials was keeping enough space on sidewalks for people to get by.
White said the city’s code enforcement officers focus first on large-scale food merchants that in essence run restaurants on sidewalks. Flower, fruit and cell phone vendors are the lowest priority for enforcement, he said.
Councilmember Norma Campos Kurtz recalled seeing sidewalk vendors set up along Harbor Boulevard in the resort district, forcing families and people pushing strollers to walk onto the street to get around them.
“Cars had to stop in that lane to let those people finish walking,” Campos Kurtz said. “The danger to our pedestrians, whether they be visitors or workers in that area,…
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