City staff could not provide a timeline of when enforcement for the sidewalk vending ordinance, through fines and confiscation, will begin.
Long Beach sidewalk and street vendors will soon be required to have a business license, health permit, “plan check” and insurance to operate in the city, City Council decided Tuesday night.
Fees for these items can range from from hundreds to thousands of dollars. City staff could not provide a clear timeline as to when requirements will be enforced with citations and impoundment of equipment.
Long Beach City Council began discussing an ordinance to create legal guidelines for sidewalk and street vending in May 2023. Following community meetings, focus groups and public surveys, Tuesday night’s proposed ordinance was deemed the “final agreement” by City staff.
“The goal was to come up with a balanced approach to encourage and support sidewalk vendors in this city while also maintaining accessibility, safety and public health,” said Deputy City Manager Tyler Bonanno-Curley.
Long Beach’s regulations must comply with a 2018 California law—The Safe Sidewalk Vending Act (SB 946)—which allows sidewalk and street vending and limits the way in which cities can regulate street vending. Any rules or restrictions passed must be for “health, safety or welfare reasons,” according to the bill.
The City is increasing its reserve fund from $1,000 to $1,500 per sidewalk vendor to cover licensing and insurance costs for the first year of operations.
Health permit fees are as follows:
- $0 (exempt) for vendors selling prepackaged, nonperishable foods under 25 square feet
- $300 Annual Health Permit; $250 Plan Check Fee for vendors selling whole produce or packaged foods such as tamales, chips, candy or ice cream.
- $730 Annual Health Permit; $445 Plan Check Fee for vendors selling foods such as hot dogs, popcorn, smoothies, cut fruit, etc.
- $730 Annual Health Permit; $1,165 Plan Check Fee for vendors selling foods such as hamburgers, tacos, burritos, kebabs, etc.
Other changes to the proposed ordinance from May include:
- Complying with the California Values Act
- Sidewalk vendors can use utilities of private property owners with their permission, as long as safety hazards and ADA accessibility concerns are mitigated.
- Definition of “parkway” has been redefined to explicitly restrict operations in medians.
- Operating distance has increased from 15 feet to 25 feet away from LA County waterway and/or flood control fencing.
- The use of red and blue flashing signs is restricted.
- All flashing signs must not face a highway or traffic.
- Costs of license, permit and plan check fees are offset for the first year.
The cost for health permits depend on each operation due to “varying staff time” for permitting and plan checks. Plan check fees are one-time fees as long as the vendor does not change the type of food preparation required.
Long Beach has met with three Compact Mobile Food Operation manufacturers and the LA County health department in hopes of developing a universal plan check approval for certain carts. They hope to have pre-approved equipment which they say will “reduce vendor costs related to plan check and expedite the Health Permit approval process.”
City staff did not have any more information about the pre-approved carts or their costs.
Proposed regulations included five pages of:
- Distance and location requirements such as no vending within 5 feet of utility boxes, parking meters, streetlights and bus or metro stops.
- No vending within 10 feet of an ATM, bike parking or shared e-scooter parking.
- Prohibiting residential areas.
- Prohibiting certain parks such as Willow Springs Park Wetlands, Colorado Lagoon, Ed Dorado Nature Center, DeForest Park and Wetlands and Los Cerritos Wetlands.
- Prohibiting city-owned properties such as the Long Beach Convention Center, Shoreline Village, Pike Outlets, Rainbow Lagoon Park, Ranchos Los Alamitos and Ranchos Los Cerritos.
- Restrictions from vending near public restrooms, bus stops, driveways, ATMs, building entrances and exits, outdoor dining areas, beach access points, schools, swap meets, farmer’s markets and more.
City staff said that they have been in conversation with the owner of the Pike Outlets to allow sidewalk vending adjacent to the outlets, but as of now “we don’t have a final resolution.” Vice Mayor Cindy Allen said in her experience, they were not “receptive” to allowing street vending.
ENFORCING SIDEWALK VENDING REQUIREMENTS
City staff said that their plans for enforcing business licenses, health permits and insurance requirements will be focused on education for “several months.” Curley said the Business License Division and Business Services will be in charge of educating people of the license and permit requirements.
The Environmental Health Bureau will provide education on Plan Checks and health permits. Curley said the only time Long Beach Police will take enforcement actions is if a vendor is committing illegal activity “not directly related to sidewalk vending” such as selling illegal items.
In the past year, Curley said 18 vendors have been given cease and desist orders for not having a health permit, and none of those vendors have gotten health permits since then.
“No citations have been given, it’s either you have a health permit and can function, or you don’t have a health permit and you can’t function,” City Manager Tom Modica said. “Those are the enforcement mechanisms.”
The city has reissued 40 health permits to vendors in the past year, but no new ones.
Gabrille Hernandez with Orale LB pointed out that some of the documents required for business licenses and health permits may not be accessible to all street vendors, such as tax documents and social security cards. She said at least a year of education and implementation would be “ideal” before enforcement is used, to give vendors enough time to get the necessary documents.
‘When I think about the process of implementation rather than enforcement, I would think we want to reward the good actors, so even if someone necessarily didn’t have a business license when you went out there, if they were in the process of getting one, you would honor that. Or if they were in the process of getting a health permit, you would be able to note that and honor that,” said Councilmember Joni Ricks-Oddie, who pointed out again that there’s no clear deadline of when enforcement will begin.
Curley responded by saying enforcement methods of confiscating carts and equipment is “a ways off.”
[A previous version of this article misspelled Councilmember Joni Ricks-Oddie’s first name as Jodie. The Signal Tribune regrets this error.]
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