ANAHEIM : Council to Consider Banning Vendors

Code enforcement officials are recommending that the City Council on Tuesday take the first step toward banning street vendors from residential neighborhoods because attempts to regulate them have proved too burdensome and costly.

Code enforcement manager John Poole said Friday that he will recommend that the council give tentative approval to an ordinance that would ban all sales from vehicles parked in residential neighborhoods. Because non-emergency ordinances must be passed by the council twice, council members could then give final approval to the ban Aug. 25.

According to city statistics, there are 153 licensed vending trucks in the city and dozens more that are unlicensed. They sell a variety of items, including produce, groceries, cigarettes, disposable diapers and clothes. Almost all of them operate in downtown neighborhoods.

The city’s current ordinance, first adopted in 1986, requires that the trucks move at least 200 feet hourly, operate only between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. and not within 40 feet of an intersection or 500 feet of a school.

“We’ve tried regulation for a number of years and the problem has gotten worse and worse,” Poole said. “These are residential areas that we are trying to improve.”

The recommendation for the ban comes after 250 people attended last Tuesday’s council discussion of street vending, with about two-thirds of those present calling for a ban.

Those advocating a ban were residents who say the vendors park for hours or even days in front of their homes in violation of city codes, and small-store owners who say the trucks are unfair competition.

They accused some of the vendors of illegally selling drugs, fireworks and tax-free cigarettes smuggled in from Mexico. They also said the trucks are noisy and that the vendors and their customers litter and urinate on the homeowners’ front lawns and threaten them when they complain.

“If I tried to open a store in my home, I would be shut down,” said homeowner Susan Kocsis at the meeting. “Why should they be allowed to operate a store on the street in front of my house?”

Most of the trucks are owned and frequented by Latinos, which has led some vendors and their supporters to say this is at least partially a racial issue.

Salvador Sarmiento, the vendors’ attorney, could not be reached for comment Friday, but he said during last week’s meeting: “The vendors are being held responsible for welfare fraud, trouble between the races, loitering and the lessening of the quality of life in the city. That’s quite a burden to put on one group.”

Tuesday’s meeting begins at 5 p.m. at City Hall, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd.