ANAHEIM : Vendors Cited for Parking Violations

As an ordinance that would severely curtail street vending winds its way through the courts, Anaheim code enforcement officials have begun citing vendors for allegedly violating a second ordinance that prohibits trucks of more than 6,000 pounds from parking on residential streets.

Code enforcement officials, who were ordered by an appellate court not to enforce the curtailing ordinance until it was reviewed, said the vendors are not being singled out and that they are simply enforcing a longstanding law.

The vendors--who sell produce, groceries, furniture and clothes from the back of vans and trucks--think otherwise. They say they are being harassed and that the city is circumventing the court’s order.

Salvador Sarmiento, the vendors’ attorney, said he doubts the city has ever cited a water delivery truck or other large vehicle, so he thinks the city must be targeting the vendors.

“The city has the right to enforce its ordinances, but it can’t be selective,” Sarmiento said. “They can’t cite the vendors and ignore everyone else.”

Code Enforcement Manager John Poole acknowledged that several vendors have been cited over that last couple of weeks for violating the weight restriction, but denied that the citations were part of “an orchestrated effort to get rid of the vendors.”

Poole said residential streets are not designed to support vehicles that weigh over 6,000 pounds and that damage to streets occurs when heavy trucks, such as those used by some of the vendors, drive or are parked on them.

Most of the citations have been issued in the neighborhood surrounding Jeffrey Drive and Lynne Avenue. Poole did not know how many citations have been issued.

He said the weight limitation “is just another regulation that they have to abide with.”

In addition to the weight ordinance, vendors are being cited for parking in red zones and for various health and safety violations.

“They’re fair rules,” Poole said. “I can’t drive an overweight vehicle in the area or park in a red zone, why should anyone else be able to?”

After a long and protracted fight, the City Council in September passed an ordinance banning street vending in residential neighborhoods.

The vendors took the city to court, and in November the 4th District Court of Appeal told the city it could not enforce the ordinance until the court decided whether the ordinance violated state laws governing traffic and streets. A hearing was held last month and a decision is pending.

Mike Kowalski, a spokesman for Neighborhoods Opposed to street Vending in Anaheim or NOVA, said the violation of the weight ordinance “is just another example of how the vendors ignore the law. They illegally park, they don’t pick up their litter. This is just one more thing.”