Yuba City to tweak street vendor changes amid food-truck pushback
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Council paused to tweak rules after licensed food-truck objections.
- Draft already adds warnings, fines and possible confiscation for violators.
- Council will tweak licensed-vendor limits and present revised ordinance later.
Yuba City council members on Tuesday paused a new set of rules that would modernize and strengthen how the city regulates and enforces street vending, from open-air sidewalk cooks to parking-lot food trucks.
The crackdown on unlicensed and unpermitted vendors sprouting alongside city thoroughfares has been in the works for months, with the rise of street food sellers escalating noticeably for more than a year, according to city officials.
But a licensed food truck operator’s objections caused officials to reconsider their approach to thwarting what they have called illegal street vending, and how tightening the city strictures could jeopardize small businesses following the rules.
“I understand I have wheels under my kitchen, however, I would venture to say my kitchen’s a lot cleaner than a lot of restaurants in this community, and I have a right to push my product just like they do,” said Anthony Consilla, a local food truck operator. “I share the same credentials.”
‘I don’t think I’m impeding, I think I’m competing’
Food vendors have consistently set up along Highway 20, the main east-to-west thoroughfare through Yuba City, and other parts of town, with some operations fashioned like makeshift restaurants, complete with tables, chairs, lights, tents and music.
City officials said the “pop up” vendors are often trespassing, not complying with state food regulations overseen by Sutter County, and violating safety and accessibility requirements. They argue that by skirting requirements, street vendors gain an unfair competitive advantage over rule-abiding restaurants and food trucks.
Consilla operates his business, a hot dog truck called TonyBob’s, outside the Home Depot in Yuba City, with permission from the business. He said he agreed with the spirit of the city’s attempt to curb the unpermitted set-ups in parking lots and sidewalks, but took issue with the limitations it would set on licensed mobile operators, too.
The back-and-forth led council members to reconsider how the proposed changes would affect not just licensed vendors, but the rights of private businesses who allow vendors to sell from their property, and those facing the added competition.
“I don’t think I’m impeding, I think I’m competing,” Consilla said. “There are restaurants next to restaurants, car washes next to car washes, liquor stores next to liquor stores in this community, hardware stores next to hardware stores. We should all have the ability to provide our service or our product to the public on the same level.”
The proposed ordinance comes equipped with more enforcement mechanisms for the city to employ, starting with warnings followed by fines, then escalating to potential confiscation of food, equipment and carts.
Council members set the tightened restrictions in motion in January, leading to a draft of the changes approved by the city planning commission last month. With those recommendations in hand Tuesday night, council members agreed to tweak the new rules with licensed mobile vendors, such as Consilla, in mind.
They agreed to extend the time constraint to six hours of business, nine hours on site, and to reduce the mandate that vendors set up more than 400 feet from restaurants. City officials said they will incorporate the council’s proposed changes and present the revised ordinance at a future meeting.
What’s the problem?
The city’s vendor codes have been in place for about 15 years. Some became outdated and inadequate to enforce the ways street vending has evolved, city officials said.
“The ordinance has been around since 2010, and it’s broke,” said Councilmember Dave Shaw. “It is flat-out broke.”
The prevalence of people selling food and drinks throughout Yuba City without proper licenses or health permits shot up since the original ordinance went into effect, officials said, with a noticeable spike over the past year or so.
State law also changed over that time to allow more lenience for sidewalk vending in particular.
“The city’s and county’s hands have largely been tied for sidewalk vending,” said Doug Libby, development services director, citing the change in state law. “In a nutshell, sidewalk vending has largely been decriminalized in California. The rules we can put into effect are quite limited.”
The proposed changes define and establish rules for different types of vendors, such as sidewalk, open air and mobile. They also include a carveout for “young entrepreneurs” running small lemonade stands and bake sales, for example, to encourage those activities when on property with granted permission.
The city has cited public health concerns as a core reason for the enforcement.
“A lot of times the concern has to do with temperature control of the food, accessibility of the food to insects, as well as, you’ll notice that none of these facilities have just basic hand-washing stations,” Libby said.
City code enforcers have struggled to rein in, or even educate, vendors in violation of the current code, spreading informational flyers in English and Spanish to no avail. Some vendors shut down by code enforcement officers have resumed business the same night.
