Street vendors plying unincorporated areas of Santa Barbara County would face new rules and scrutiny under measures backed Tuesday by the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors.
An ordinance would limit the areas and hours in which vendors can operate. It would specify that they not hog sidewalks, block roadways or set up too close to freeway onramps or fire hydrants. They also would have to keep a distance from schools during class hours or events.
The board also supported a six-month pilot program for enhanced enforcement. It is designed to make it easier for county health inspectors to seize and impound cooking equipment from food sellers operating without permits.
The pilot program would involve two to four health inspectors and a sheriff’s deputy. Most of its $42,000 cost would be devoted to overtime pay, deemed necessary since many vendors operate evenings or weekends.
The effort also would include a public-service campaign to urge consumers to only patronize vendors with proper permits and avoid those whose food might not have been stored or cooked properly.
The county’s rules are meant to coordinate with those adopted by cities. Santa Barbara, Santa Maria and Solvang, for instance, have vendor ordinances. The entire effort come in response to state laws that decriminalized street vending .
“This is problem throughout the state and nobody has really cracked this nut,” said Third District supervisor Joan Hartmann. “Nobody has really solved this. And we’re now in the vanguard trying to figure it out.”
She added the county has made “slow but steady progress.”
No vendors came before the board to voice concerns about the proposal. Several North County restaurant owners, however, were vocal in their support.
They said they are under siege from unpermitted food vendors and pop-up eateries that are driving them out of business. Some, they say, are “bootleg” backyard operations that flaunt that the fact they are operating clandestinely. Some, they allege, sell alcoholic beverages without permits.
Restauranteurs say they have shouldered hundreds of dollars in costs for health inspections and permits that illegal roadside operators skirt.
“This has severely affected many restaurants who are not here, who are too afraid to speak because they are afraid of retaliation,” said Lourdes Luna, whose family has operated Mariscos Ensenada in Santa Maria for 34 years. “Many restaurants are at the brink of wanting to close down because business has gone down significantly.
“While we respect entrepreneurship, this is just not sustainable,” Luna said.
She added that said restaurants have receipts to prove where they made their purchases of meat and foodstuffs. Street vendors often don’t. When food-borne illnesses break out, health inspectors depend on food sellers to be able to show they where they obtained their ingredients in order to trace the source.
Tracy Beard, executive director of the Solvang Chamber of Commerce, said there many street vendors operating in unsafe conditions along major roads and highways.
“This is a catastrophe happening continuously,” Beard said, noting some lack toilets or handwashing stations. “They are unhealthy for our community.”
Board Chair Bob Nelson said he wants more to be done to crack down on the these problems.
“I am frustrated that it has taken so long. It all comes down to enforcement,” he said.
