If the Long Beach City Council votes to pass a new ordinance next week, local street vendors will soon have to follow a new framework of rules, which would set operating standards and bar them setting up in certain areas of the city.
At its Jan. 16 meeting, the council will vote on the ordinance, a move that was postponed in November after some members debated if insurance should be required for vendors and how much of the cost for insurance and other permit fees should be covered by the city during the first year.
If approved, the city will cover up to $450 in general liability insurance for vendors, which will be required after city officials warned that not requiring it could leave the city on the hook if any lawsuits popped up in the future. The city previously estimated that insurance coverage would cost around $300 on average.
Under the new framework, the projected costs for permits and insurance would total at nearly $1,000 per year, according to city estimates.
Long Beach is offering to cover the costs for permits and insurance for the first year with Mayor Rex Richardson asking in November to expand the pool of money available to each vendor from $1,100 to $1,500.
“The barriers to get compliant, we need to limit, and lower them so we get more folks in on the pathway to compliance,” Richardson said in November.
The funds are expected to come from $250,000 in recovery act dollars that the city has set aside for the street vendor program.
Councilmembers won’t be the final vote on the issue because some of the affected areas fall within the Coastal Zone and will need the approval of the California Coastal Commission before they take effect in neighborhoods closer to the coastline.
That includes the Pike Outlets, where the council sought to allow vendors to continue to operate but a private lease that runs through 2040 could hinder that. Under the new ordinance, the leaseholder could ban vendors from the area.
The ordinance includes other buffers that would take effect citywide if the council adopts it Tuesday night. The new rules would enforce a 20-foot buffer between other vendors, a 25-foot buffer from beach access points and five-foot buffers from locations like Metro stops, bus stops and above-ground electrical boxes.
Larger buffers (up to 500 feet) would prohibit vendors from operating near events like the Grand Prix or other large events held at the Long Beach Convention Center.
Violating the law could result in administrative penalties that could cost vendors hundreds of dollars for violating the buffers or operating without the required permits and insurance.
City officials said in November that fines are not expected to be given out to vendors for the first three to six months after the council approves the law as city workers educate vendors about the new rules to operate in Long Beach.
The council’s vote comes after more than a year of trying to draft an ordinance to comply with new state laws that decriminalized street vending but allow local jurisdictions to write their own rules so long as they don’t favor brick-and-mortar businesses.
In Long Beach, that division has been visible during the process with restaurant owners mobilizing to urge the council to adopt more restrictive rules for vendors and a handful of reports of disputes between vendors and local business owners.
The council’s Jan. 16 meeting is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.