Mobile vending rules pushed forward

Mobile vendors will eventually be legal in Yuba City, to some extent.

The City Council directed staff Tuesday to move forward with drafting potential development standards to define and regulate mobile vending. About a dozen interested business owners and citizens spoke out with comments on the presented proposal.

Both "brick and mortar" and mobile vendor owners said they are mostly satisfied. But they don't plan on giving up yet.

As soon as the meeting ended, discussion began about the need to call the city first thing this morning to ensure the business owners would remain part of the ongoing progress with mobile vending.

"That didn't finish anything in there," said George Natale, of Rosie's Sno Biz. "It said we need to keep moving on."

Under the presented proposal, pushcarts and lunch wagons would be allowed on public and private property and would have to move at least every 30 minutes to a distance of 400 to 1,000 feet away. Trailer carts would not be allowed on public property, only on private property with certain limitations, and would not be required to move.

All three types of vending operations will likely require a permit of some kind from the city.

One of the biggest concerns from the mobile vendors was the 400-foot rule, essentially requiring permission for a proposed vending site from any like business within 400 feet.

"That's a football field plus 100 feet," Natale said. "That's a ridiculously long way from existing businesses. You look at 400 feet in a community like this and you are out of business."

He and Paul Kaiser, owner of Fat Daddy's Frankfurters, agree that 100 to 200 feet would be a more fair distance.

There was also the question about what defines an "unmet need," regarding the private property areas a trailer cart vendor would be allowed.

"Does the city determine that? Do vendors determine that? Do brick and mortars determine that or does the community determine that?" Kaiser said.

As a trailer cart operator, he was not happy that council did not discuss possibilities for changing allowed locations to include some public property options, he said.

The proposal presented to the council was the compromise vendors and brick and mortar business owners developed after three meetings to identify the issues and potential solutions related to mobile vending.

Community Development Director Aaron Busch hopes to bring a draft ordinance before the council before the end of the year, he said.

Contact Appeal reporter Ashley Gebb at 749-4724 or agebb@appealdemocrat.com