Fed up with sidewalk vending and increasing crime in the area, Mission Beach Town Council held a press conference on June 14 demanding that the City enforce existing codes to curb vending at Mission Beach Park. But even though San Diego’s new sidewalk vending ordinance takes effect this week, the City cannot enforce it in coastal areas until the California Coastal Commission endorses it.
“Like most residents, I understand the privilege of living in the middle of a huge beautiful park. With that privilege comes a responsibility to help protect our parks and beaches,” said current MBTC president Larry Webb.
“The residents of MB have witnessed firsthand the change that has happened to this beautiful Mission Beach Park. Over the last several years, we’ve seen this park change from a place where families from all over the City would gather and enjoy one of the most popular beaches in the City, to a place that is overrun and has been taken over, by street vendors.”
“Today, street vending is visually and physically blocking coastal access to the beach,” continued Webb. “That’s what coastal access is all about: providing access to the beach. The City Attorney’s Office claimed they could not enforce the (municipal) code because it did not contain an enforcement provision. With the passing of the street vending ordinance, an enforcement provision does now exist. The new ordinance takes effect on June 22, yet the city attorney is refusing to enforce the ban on street vending in Mission Bay Park without further City Council approval.”
On March 1, City Council voted 8-1 to pass an ordinance to regulate sidewalk vending and establish penalties for non-compliance. Authored by District 2 Councilmember Dr. Jennifer Campbell’s office, under the new ordinance, all sidewalk vendors had until June 1 to either cease vending activity or comply with the ordinance’s provisions. Along the coast, however, the ordinance will have to be approved by the Coastal Commission before it can take effect.
“SB 946 decriminalized sidewalk vending and established requirements for local regions to regulate them,” Campbell’s chief-of-staff, Venus Molina, told the City Council before the ordinance passed. “The [new] ordinance applies to special events, swap meets, farmers markets, and shoreline parks. These regulations must be directly related to public health, safety, or welfare. There are distance requirements between vendors and a prohibition of vending in high-traffic pedestrian areas. Vendors must obtain a vending permit. No insurance is required and the permit would be renewed annually.”
“The laws have been on the books the entire time to have it (vending) off this beautiful public park space,” said past MBTC president Matt Gardner. “It really is egregious, this free-for-all of over-commercialization in a non-commercial zone. Public park space should be open and beautiful and no one should be able to touch it with financial interests.”
“There is music blasting unfit for public consumption and the sidewalks are jam-packed,” complained Jeff Klein of Mission Beach wearing a “Missing Beach” hat. “People are selling crap, blocking the sidewalks. The real question is, What is the standard? Where do we draw the line?”
“Street vending in Mission Beach is very much a public-safety issue,” noted Webb during the press conference.
Asked for data supporting his claims, Webb answered, “The evidence we have is anecdotal.”
Added Webb: “The real story is the City not enforcing the current municipal code and violating the California Coastal Act. Our community cannot comprehend why our City leaders are giving preferential treatment to the 100-plus vendors blocking public access over the rights of hundreds of thousands of citizens.”
Enforcement of the new sidewalk vending ordinance (which the City cannot enforce in coastal areas until the Coastal Commission rules on it) calls for warnings and referrals on the first offense, $200 fines for vendors without permits, and $500 for those with permits for a second offense, $500 fines for vendors without permits, and $1,000 for those with permits for a third offense and $500 fines and/or impoundment of vending equipment for subsequent violations for those without vending permits, and $1,000 fines and/or equipment impoundment for vendors with permits.
VENDING IN MISSION BEACH PARK
– Mission Beach Park was gifted to the city of San Diego as parkland by the Spreckels organization in the late 1920s.
– Nov. 3, 1987, Proposition G, a voter initiative passed 67% to 33% – it read: City of San Diego initiative measure. Amends the San Diego municipal code. The Mission Beach Park property owned by the City shall be restricted to Public park and recreation use such as grass, picnic areas, public open space, public parking, public recreation, and meeting facilities. Expressly excluded are retail and commercial uses except within a historically rehabilitated Plunge Building, which would serve the park and beach visitors, such as restaurants, fitness, and the like; Historical preservation uses, such as preservation and rehabilitation of the historic Plunge Building, Roller Rink Building, and Roller Coaster where economically feasible; Incidental and related uses to those uses authorized by above.
– On Nov. 21, 1989, Proposition G was incorporated into the Mission Beach Precise Plan and the
City of San Diego’s Local Coastal Plan and local coastal plans are approved by the California Coastal
Commission.
– On May 23, 2022, Municipal code 63.50 was included in the new city vending ordinance – Vending in Public Parks, Plazas, and Beach Areas; Vending is prohibited in the
following locations: Sunset Cliffs Natural Park, and Mission Beach Park as defined in section
63.50 of this code.
