Anaheim : Council to Discuss Street Vendors

The City Council is scheduled on Tuesday to discuss what, if anything, should be done about street vendors who sell produce and other products from trucks parked on city streets.

The council is responding to residents from several neighborhoods who have complained at recent meetings about the vendors, saying that they block traffic and that their customers drop litter on streets and lawns.

The council is not scheduled to vote on any ordinances that would further regulate or ban the practice, but it could order an ordinance written.

The city already has an ordinance banning vendors from selling at one location for more than an hour, but most sellers avoid citations by moving a short distance down the street periodically, officials have said.

“Why is everything so dirty?’ resident Sharon Farmer wrote in a letter to the council. “The street sweeper comes on Friday, we all clean our yards over the weekend, and by Sunday afternoon and through the week our street is filthy. I am so tired of picking up after people and asking them to use the trash can.”

In a report to the council, John W. Poole, the city’s code enforcement manager, said that vendors began parking on city streets about five years ago and that in recent years more and more have taken up the practice.

“As this growth occurred, vendors started to park for hours at the same location, which resulted in traffic congestion and the accumulation of food wrappers, cups, bottles, paper plates and the deterioration of public and private property,” Poole wrote.

“Vendors who previously sold only produce began selling grocery items such as canned goods, chips, pastries, toiletry items, dairy products and cigarettes.”

The meeting begins at 5 p.m. at City Hall, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd.