PORT HUENEME : Restriction Backed on Street Vendors

After receiving a complaint from a local florist saying unlicensed street vendors are creating unfair competition in Port Hueneme, the City Council on Wednesday backed a proposal outlawing push-cart businesses from using the city’s public roads and sidewalks.

Tamah Berger, the city’s code enforcement officer, said Port Hueneme’s previous ordinance was deleted in a 1991 revision of the Municipal Code.

She said a law on the matter was deemed necessary because of the potential health hazards caused by vendors who stand at intersections selling flowers or weave through neighborhoods selling ice cream and other treats.

While some merchants in Port Hueneme supported the amendment, saying it would limit unfair competition, a spokesman for a Latino advocacy group said the rule could be divisive if it targets one group over another.

Under the proposed law, push-cart vendors may operate on private property if they have the permission of the property owner. They must also obtain a $175 special-use permit and a $22-a-day peddler-vending permit, Assistant Planner Greg Brown said.

Lonnie Miramontes, director of community services for El Concilio del Condado de Ventura, said the rule would fall hardest on poor Latino ice-cream vendors, or paleteros, who go into Port Hueneme’s streets from neighboring Oxnard.

“A lot of people who are barely making a living by that type of work will either become criminals” under the new rule or they could be exploited by property owners who might take a cut of their profit, Miramontes said.

Bill Morrison, co-owner of a fast-food concession stand at Hueneme Beach, said he was pleased with the city’s plan to restrict street vending. He added that vendors cause congestion at the beach and that transient businesses should be subject to the same rules he is.

The council is expected to take a final vote on the matter at the next meeting in two weeks.