Officials in Anaheim and Rancho Santa Margarita are joining a host of their colleagues across Orange County to tighten regulations on street vending.
In recent years, city officials across the county have been introducing new laws to increase regulations on food truck owners, taco street vendors and paleteros who sell ice cream out of push carts.
Street vendor advocates argue that street vendors are often entrepreneurial immigrants trying to make a living and feed their families and benefit the communities they are part of.
Officials and brick and mortar business owners argue that these vendors create unfair competition for more traditional businesses who have to pay for a lease and a variety of permits and they also have expressed health and safety concerns.
[Read: Are OC’s Street Vendors ‘Unfair Competition’ or Fuel for the Community?]
Anaheim City Council members last week voted unanimously on a new ordinance that would allow city code enforcement officers to impound street vendor equipment if vendors violate city rules. They also moved to streamline the permit process.
Mayor Ashleigh Aitken said at the Feb. 13 city council meeting that the new proposed law strikes a balance of addressing health concerns while also allowing vendors to operate.
“It’s a good way that we’re supporting the entrepreneurial spirit of these vendors, while still protecting the health of our neighbors and our visitors,” she said.
“It does provide a legal pathway, not just to vendors getting their licenses, but also giving them future educational opportunities to start here, but then expand and maybe someday become one of our brick and mortar businesses.”
Council members in Rancho Santa Margarita also voted unanimously on Feb. 14 to approve an ordinance that limits what times and places street vendors can operate their businesses. It would also require street vendors to obtain a city permit.
Officials in cities like Placentia, Laguna Hills, Stanton and Orange last year have all taken steps to tighten rules on street vendors.
The street vendor crackdown in OC comes after state legislators passed two laws aimed at decriminalizing street vending in California and limiting the rules cities can impose on such vendors as well as removing barriers for them to get permits.
[Read: OC Sidewalk Vendors Struggle With Costly, Confusing County, City Permits Meant To Help]
Anaheim Cracks Down on Street Vendors
Beyond allowing code enforcement to confiscate street vendors’ equipment, Anaheim officials say the ordinance is intended to reduce barriers for vendors to get permits to operate legally.
This includes removing the requirement of certain background information on the permit application including criminal convictions in the last five years.
“We welcome entrepreneurs, we welcome new businesses in the City of Anaheim,” said City Councilman Carlos Leon at the Feb. 13 meeting. “We’re ready to walk people through the process and to help them out as much as possible so that we’re looking out for the safety of our residents of our communities.”
City councilman Jose Diaz said some of the vendors are not mom and pop entrepreneurs trying to make a living but part of a human trafficking network – a concern that has surfaced in other cities as well.
“This is people that had to repay a debt for being human trafficked into United States,” Diaz said at the Feb. 13 city council meeting. “The few that are really Mom and Pops that are wanting to make an honest living, we need to set up a system where we educate them, and we show them a path to legalize their business.”
City staff said their human trafficking task force has not yet released findings on their investigation on whether some of the vendors are being trafficked.
Councilwoman Natalie Meeks agreed that most vendors weren’t just “mom and pop” vendors and raised health concerns.
“They’re unsanitary. They don’t have bathrooms. They don’t have hand washing facilities. They’re blocking our sidewalks. These are safety issues and we need to move forward on this,” she said.
The new law also would require vendors to dispose of fats and grease properly, keep their areas clean and have trash cans and ensure vendors don’t block right of way.
It comes after a rise in unpermitted street vendors in Anaheim and no food vendors have obtained city permits to sell, according to a city staff report.
The report also states that code enforcement officers have upped their proactive patrol from two to six nights a week and went from giving out 141 street vendor citations in 2022 to 423 in last year.
Currently, street vendor equipment can only be confiscated by the city with county health inspectors present.
Officials also publicly expressed interest in exploring a six-month or year-long permit fee waiver to make it easier for vendors to get permitted.
The cost of a business license and street vendor permit is $172, according to the staff report.
Rancho Santa Margarita Tackles Street Vending
City officials in Rancho Santa Margarita say there’s been an increase in unsafe sidewalk vending, bringing up a variety of safety concerns.
That includes improper food handling, insufficient restrooms and hand washing areas, sidewalk obstruction, loud music, trash pile-ups and improper grease disposal.
“One of my primary concerns has to do with food vendors that we’ve unfortunately had in our city because I do believe that they’re threatening the health and welfare of our residents,” Councilmember Anthony Beall said during the Feb. 14 city council meeting.
“There’s not adequate refrigeration. As we mentioned, there’s no sanitation, no hand washing and people get sick,” he said.
The Rancho Santa Margarita City Council unanimously approved the first reading of a new ordinance that would create time and place restrictions on sidewalk vendors. The council must approve a second reading at a future meeting before the changes can go into effect.
If approved, stationary vendors in residential zones would be prohibited at all times. That means no street vendors are allowed to set up a station and serve customers in neighborhoods.
Roaming vendors, which move from place to place and only stop to make a transaction, would be allowed to operate from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
In nonresidential zones, all vendors would be able to sell from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. or the hours of other businesses on the same street.
All vendors would also be required to obtain a sidewalk vending permit from the city. The permit process includes a background check and they would not be allowed to sell alcohol or block driveways.
“Occasionally, we do see aggressive behavior and resistance by the vendors and their customers to the code enforcement and health department staff,” Cheryl Kuta, director of Development Services, said at the meeting.
Sidewalk vendors that operate without a valid permit would be subject to a $250 fine after a first violation. That would increase to $500 on the second violation and $1000 on each additional violation within a year of the first.
The Rancho Santa Margarita City Council will consider the ordinance’s second reading on Feb. 28. If approved, the ordinance would go into effect 30 days after that meeting.
Editor’s note: Ashleigh Aitken’s father, Wylie Aitken, chairs Voice of OC’s board of directors.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
Angelina Hicks is a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.
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