Apple Valley passes guidelines for sidewalk vendors

The regulations, aimed mostly at health and safety issues, are a response to state legislation meant to put sidewalk vendors and regular businesses in equal competition with each other. How effectively those rules will be enforced remains a question.

Apple Valley has adopted regulations regarding sidewalk vendors, measures designed to comply with town zoning regulations and county health requirements.

Those regulations, adopted by the town council unanimously in December, are a response to state legislation that forbids a city from prohibiting sidewalk vendors, as many cities have done throughout the years.

Senate Bill 946, which became law in January 2019, also limits a city or town’s ability to restrict sidewalk vendors, even if the municipalities are trying to protect “brick and mortar” businesses in their community.

Cities have long regarded sidewalk vendors – usually someone selling food from a push cart, or flowers or fresh fruit on the side of a road – as nuisances, or threats to their established businesses. Some have banned the practice, but most have looked the other way rather than pick a fight that can lead to an expensive legal battle, and maybe negative publicity.

But the Sidewalk Safe Vending Act practically venerates sidewalk vending, calling it “important entrepreneurship” that provides economic opportunities to low-income and immigrant communities.

“Sidewalk vending increases access to desired goods, such as culturally significant food and merchandise,” the law reads. “[It] contributes to a safe and dynamic public space,” although it must be “properly regulated.”

The safe vending act prohibits municipal governments from limiting sidewalk vendors to a specific part of a public right-of-way, unless a health or safety issue is involved.

They’re also not to be restricted to a specific part of a neighborhood, but cities and towns can otherwise regulate their time and place of operation, including keeping them away from swap meets and farmers markets.

Violations are to be punished by fines only.

Since state law supersedes local law, all cities and towns in California must accommodate sidewalk vendors. It’s now up to local governments to make sure that both types of businesses are subject to the same rules, as much as possible.

Apple Valley’s regulations require vendors to obtain a town business license and sidewalk vendor permit. Those who serve fresh and prepared food must have a San Bernardino County health permit.

Also, street vendors are allowed to set up on most public properties, or private property with the owner’s consent, and they must submit to a LiveScan criminal background check before being permitted.

The goal is to “level the playing field” among all local businesses, Mayor Curt Emick said.

“We want to help protect all of Apple Valley’s current business owners who have fought tirelessly to ensure their doors stay open,” said Emick in a statement after the town council passed its sidewalk vendor regulations. “This past year has been incredibly difficult for our local businesses, and we want to make sure they do not feel the added burden of competing with others who aren’t playing by the same rules.”

State law now puts sidewalk vendors on the same level as traditional retailers, in that they both must follow essentially the same regulations, said Guy Eisenbrey, Apple Valley’s code enforcement manager.

“The state of California now says that we have to allow sidewalk vendors, and we can’t criminally prosecute them if they violate the town’s regulations,” Eisenbrey said. “So we have to define what sidewalk vending is and then come up with some regulations we can enforce. But whatever we come up with has to conform to the state’s regulations.”

Before coming to Apple Valley, Eisenbrey worked in two cities – Chino as a police officer and Victorville as a code enforcement official – where sidewalk vending is more of a problem than it is in Apple Valley.

Prior to the new regulations being adopted, Apple Valley’s municipal codes prohibited “solicitors” but said nothing about sidewalk vending.

“We don’t have as much of it because we’re a little removed from things,” Eisenbrey said. “We aren’t as close to Interstate 15 as Victorville, where we used to confiscate carts and issue citations. But we do have sidewalk vendors in Apple Valley, and we don’t look the other way. We regulate it as much as we can.”

Sidewalk vendors can be found in virtually any urban area, and they have a history of clashing with traditional brick-and-mortar businesses.

In New York last June, city officials announced that laws regarding street vendors would no longer be enforced by the New York Police Department, but by a special commission.  A New York Times report noted that the city’s street vendors “are often the subject of complaints from store owners, business improvement districts, building managers and neighbors over noise, smells, sidewalk congestion and other nuisances.”

In January, San Diego officials announced that they would bring back regulations regarding sidewalk vendors, after multiple complaints about the “chaotic conditions” surrounding them, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Apple Valley, like a lot of cities, might have a difficult time enforcing its sidewalk vending laws, said Don Brown, president of Lee & Associates Victorville.

“I think what they’re doing is well intentioned, and I agree with it, but I don’t see how they can check on every vendor in the city,” Brown said. “The county has a lot of regulations regarding the handling of food, and they’re all pretty stringent. How are you supposed to make sure every [vendor] in the city is following them? Will the sheriff’s department be able to enforce them? I don’t think so.”