Starting this week, the City of Santa Barbara’s Vendor Enforcement Team, led by the Fire Department and supported by bilingual City staff and law enforcement officers for safety, will be conducting inspections of sidewalk vending operations.
The focus is on ensuring compliance with fire code regulations, as open flames, propane tanks, and grease create hazardous conditions that can escalate quickly, requiring emergency response and posing serious risks to public safety.
To address these concerns, City Fire is actively enforcing fire code violations related to unpermitted food vendors operating in public rights-of-way. In coordination with the City Attorney’s Office, the Fire Department is also leading criminal investigations into fire safety violations.
Key Vendor Requirements:
- Business Tax Certificate from the City of Santa Barbara
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Health Permit from the County of Santa Barbara Environmental Health Services
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Cart Specifications: Carts must be self-contained and not exceed 74 inches in length, 34 inches in width, or 80 inches in height. Gas-powered generators are prohibited.
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Prohibited Vending Locations: No vending within 5 feet of crosswalks/fire hydrants or 10 feet of driveways, bus benches, or transit shelters.
To help vendors meet these requirements, the City offers guidance and resources, including an information guide and direct assistance online, by phone, and in person. Vendors are encouraged to take advantage of these resources to ensure they are operating legally and safely.
The City urges residents and visitors to support licensed vendors, who contribute to the local economy and help sustain small businesses and families.
Before 2019, most sidewalk vending was prohibited in the City of Santa Barbara, but this changed because of State law, (Senate Bill 946) the Safe Sidewalk Vending Act.
For more information, visit Sidewalk Vending in Santa Barbara – SantaBarbaraCA.gov/SidewalkVending.
Once again, no one is addressing the damage caused by this street vendor operating at Mission and San Pascual (pictured above). A portion of the recently constructed $9 million concrete sidewalk/bike path has been stained with grease, and curbs have been chipped. At the end of each night, the vendor washes the sidewalk with soap and water, allowing grease and other waste to flow directly into the storm drains. The once-pristine concrete is now permanently discolored. For comparison, the vendor area once looked like the concrete in front of the store.
In addition, the vendor regularly drives a large van onto the sidewalk/bike path, blocking access illegally for over an hour while loading and unloading. On occasion, he even washes the van while parked on the sidewalk.These actions are illegal and clearly damaging, regardless of whether someone is a street vendor or not. And yet, the city chooses not to address or enforce these violations. The vendor should be held financially responsible for the damage caused, even though the cost of repairs will most likely exceeds any income he may have generated. If not, he keeps the profits while taxpayers are left to cover the cleanup costs—and the local neighborhood is left to deal with the lasting degradation of their sidewalks.
You can thank the following ayes for creating the problem and incurring additional tax dollars to manage the problem they created…
I see Limon in the ayes…
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVotesClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB946
Who in their right mind supports illegal business which takes business away from legal business! Allows illegal business that endangers the health of the public and then ensures your tax dollars are used to manage the problem they permitted, while at the same time increasing taxes …The politicians that voted aye have priority to support illegal business. And create more taxes.
Where is the free healthcare and free business for legal citizens, we pay more tax dollars ? Everything costs more ….
https://www.edhat.com/news/californias-medi-cal-shortfall-hits-6-2-billion-with-unprecedented-cost-increases/
Yikes. Are you following the news on this topic at all or just having a xenophobic reaction? The issue is these types of vendors are new-ish and state and local laws have had to rush to keep up with deciding what is technically legal and what isn’t. Now they’re changing zoning codes and updating laws so they can effectively target the illegal actions of these vendors. But by all means, continue to rant about a totally separate topic.
Yikes can you read
b) It is the intent of the Legislature to promote entrepreneurship and support immigrant and low-income communities.
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB946&showamends=false
This was passed in 2018 which opened the door to illegal vendors, stop gaslighting
Did you read the entire law or only pick out what angers you? Illegal vendors have always existed, this law gave them a path to legitimacy granted they follow these rules. Some do, some don’t. The ones coming up from LA that take over entire street corners and sidewalks are not the same as the guy selling mangos from a cart.
@ Anonymous ….Your logic is erratic
But yours is nonexistent.
Comment
@ Anonymous, you are associating billions of tax payer dollars give with xenophobic, which is no way the truth….i support legal immigration from any country, it’s sustainable…again you like to label people and gaslight….what upsets most people is paying more in taxes and goods and services …that’s what you call xenophobic….
You’ve been calling me a gaslighter. I said your comment is xenophobic, which I believe it is. So birds of a feather…
Besides that, I agree with you that these vendors should follow the rules and should be regulated. I don’t agree with your statements that undocumented people get all these free things and taxpayers don’t. I think that statement is racist and xenophobic and it detracts from the actual discussion of how do we regulate these bad actors that ruin it for legitimate sidewalk vendors and local businesses.
You must not review the budget…fyi, you can’t be xenophobic if you support legal immigration and sustainability. Your comments on xenophobic are what a gaslighter would say.
@ anonymous, stop gaslighting
If you’re gonna use a pop psychology term, at least use it correctly.
What a gaslighter would say
Really hope your grandkids don’t ask for a hot dog or scoop of ice cream.
Hot dogs cause cancer and so does sugar= increased health care costs many healthy organic foods that don’t make my kids sick,
https://www.aicr.org/resources/blog/are-hot-dogs-as-bad-as-cigarettes/
So you’re the fun grandparent? haha
Organic is fun , tastes amazing , and is healthy,. You think fake food loaded with toxic chemicals and food poisoning is fun….
The simple solution is to revoke the bill Senate Bill No. 946
CHAPTER 459, stop wasting tax payers money
A much simpler solution is to stop posting hysterical nonsense.
The Math is not going to change anyway you spin it…
Why is it that many other cities, such as El Monte and Orange, have eliminated these types of illegal vendors from their jurisdictions while Santa Barbara has been flailing in its efforts to do the same for at least the last 2 years? Shouldn’t one be fired if they’re not doing what they’re paid to do?