Redlands Eyes Regulations for Sidewalk Vendors

An ordinance that would regulate sidewalk vendors in Redlands, adding health and safety measures along with parameters for when and where goods can be sold — ultimately changing the way business is conducted, is coming back before Redlands City Council next week.

The city does not have many parameters in place for sidewalk vendors, according to Assistant City Manager Chris Boatman.

“The goal of this ordinance is to protect both the public and the vendor,” Councilmember Mario Saucedo said.

The council attempted to push the ordinance forward Tuesday evening, March 21, with a 3-1 favor. Mayor Eddie Tejeda, Saucedo, and Councilmember Paul Barich voted in favor of the regulations — while Councilmember Denise Davis was against. Councilmember Jenna Guzman-Lowery was not in attendance.

However, the vote is moot due to a technical error that “misidentified one of the streets affected by the ordinance,” according to city spokesperson Carl Baker. The ordinance will be brought back to City Council Tuesday, April 4.

City staff named specific streets on a map that were overcrowded with pedestrians, and thus unsafe for sidewalk vendors to set up. Baker said the point where Cajon and Orange Street change at Citrus were not correctly identified.

Due to this slip, the reading on April 4 will be “treated” as the first reading, Baker said, and if it passes again at that time, a second reading will be scheduled at a later date. If it passes the second reading, it may go 30 days before it would take effect, he said.

Davis called the proposed regulations “restrictive.”

The regulations became a focus for the city after residents and local business owners brought forward safety concerns with vendors in the public right-of-way. Concerns about health codes have also been expressed, Tejeda said.

The ordinance Redlands plans to pass “needs” work, Lyzzeth Mendoza, a spokesperson for the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, said in an emailed statement Monday, March 27.

Mendoza offered a number of recommendations from the coalition, including “fully bilingual” community liaisons and allowing vendors to operate for extended hours.

Reports of violations varied, city leaders said.

In some cases Tejeda said reports of violations were severe. Boatman said some of the reports led the city to look into regulations further. Tejeda said he was also concerned about vendors setting up in front of grocery stores, and other businesses.

The ordinance focuses on solutions for health, public safety, and general concerns with vendors in crowded public spaces.

The requirements would make it necessary for vendors to get a city business license — the fee depends on the type of product they sell. Food vendors would also need health permits.

Vendors may also have to report annual gross sales, according to Boatman.

Vendors would be required to get general liability insurance — for those operating in the public right-of-way.

Sidewalk vendors would not be allowed to operate within residential areas, excluding “roaming” vendors — who will be able to operate from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sidewalk vendors would not be allowed to operate on business-area sidewalks, places overcrowded with foot traffic, nor would they be allowed to sell within 30 feet of schools. Sidewalk vendors would be allowed to sell at parks only during park hours.

Allowing vendors to operate into the early morning hours, or even 24 hours, like “drive through operations,” was one recommendation from the coalition.

It’s “bad policy” to shorten hours — for all businesses, the statement said.

After hearing the recommendation by speaker, David Friedman, Davis asked the council to table the issue until they could speak to the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice. A step she said the council should take before further steps.

“These small business owners are in survival mode,” Friedman said. “They’re just trying to feed their families.”

Some council members said they had spoken with vendors in the past, with the help of bilingual aid, but vendors, nor representatives for vendors were present at the council meeting.

Mendoza provided several recommendations from the coalition, including:

• Create Community Liaison positions for the city — including staff that are “fully bilingual,” “culturally sensitive,” and “practices popular education.”

• In focus groups with stakeholders, bars, game rooms, and others, they learned the groups “often prefer street vendors providing food to patrons” since it stirs up business and often helps aid with intoxication as many exit bars or clubs late at night.

• It’s “bad policy” to shorten hours — for all businesses. Mendoza said it seems counter intuitive, and added, likely in violation of SB 946 if there’s differential treatment of other brick and mortar businesses.

• Language prohibiting vendors from certain areas is bad policy, and can likely “violate state law” if there’s no appropriate rationale related to welfare, safety, and health concerns.

Mendoza also said the city could look into providing tax incentives, subsidizing cart operations, providing subsidies for vendors, or waiving the permit fees for the first one or two years. A method of enforcement that could still work, she said, would be to “respond with no fines and provide educational outreach and work with vendors to be in compliance” or create a “smaller” fine structure.

“A best practice creates educational outreach, small business resources, economic development,” Mendoza added, “and positive incentives and dialogue for a healthy and thriving small business community.”

“I agree it’s (the ordinance) important for health standards,” Davis said, near the end of the discussion at the council meeting. “But I also think it’s important to support people’s livelihood, especially entrepreneurs in our city — who are often immigrants.”

“I don’t think there’s any reason why we can’t have rules to govern our businesses here in town,” Barich said.

Andrea Ramirez pushed for support of local fruit vendors instead. “Most of these sidewalk vendors are also not local,” she said.

Over the course of six weeks in December, similar regulations for vendors in Santa Ana, saw more than 100 sidewalk vendors shut down in that area due to health violations. The city of Redlands did not provide examples of health violations of the same degree.

The ordinance will be back before the council on April 4.