INGLEWOOD, Calif. (2UG) – The Inglewood Economic and Community Development Department (ECDD) is asking the city council to set a public hearing for street vending regulations on August 22.
Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr. stopped the previously scheduled public hearing on the matter during the June 20 regular city council meeting.
The council were at odds about whether to make the buffer zone either 500 feet or 1,000 feet around venues within the Inglewood Sports and Entertainment District, churches, schools, Centinela Hospital, Inglewood Park Cemetery and the water treatment plant adjacent to Rogers Park.
Mayor Butts decided to table the discussion, however, there was a motion on the floor to extend the buffer zone to 1,000 feet around the specified venues.
“I withdraw that right now because we need to do a lot more on this,” said Butts. “I want to reschedule the public hearing and let’s go back and give it more thought.”
According to the staff report on the Aug. 8 city council agenda, ECCDD is proposing a 1,000 foot buffer zone which is the best option for SoFi Stadium.
Hollywood Park Management Company, which manages the property where SoFi Stadium is located, and Steve Ballmer, who owns the Kia Forum and Intuit Dome, are significant campaign donors to the City’s elected officials.
ECCD Director Chris Jackson didn’t sign the staff report, a member of his staff did.
City Attorney Ken Campos had proposed a 500 foot buffer zone due to current lawsuits involving the city of Los Angeles.
“There’s approx. two to three other cities that are currently being sued or are in court for their boundary limits,” said Campos. “The one in the city of Los Angeles is at 500 feet and they are being challenged because of the state law.”
“The city of LA did no study, similarly to Inglewood having no study, as to the basis as to the restriction of 500 or 1,000 feet,” said Campos. “So, unless the city of LA is able to prove as to whether there are any health or safety violation issues, the courts are probably going to find in favor of the cart vendors.”
The mayor didn’t find that sufficient enough to stop the City from establishing its own guidelines.
“They can sue for 500 or 1,000 so what difference would that make?” asked Butts.
Code Enforcement Manager Jerry Tucker explained the difference between the two proposed zones.
The proposed 500-foot radius map would only benefit the Kia Forum as it would cover the entire property to the sidewalk. For SoFi Stadium the 500-foot radius would not extend far enough and would allow street vendors to vend in the stadiums parking lots.
“For SoFi [Stadium] it would not take us to Prairie or Pincay with the 500-foot radius,” said Tucker. “For the Forum the footprint is sufficient enough to cover Manchester, Prairie, Kareem Court, and Pincay.”
“With a 1,000-foot radius SoFi would take in portions of Pincay, Prairie and would still be on property to the South and to the East as well,” said Tucker. “For the Forum it would have a greater footprint into the residential community going three blocks to the West.”
Mayor Butts then asked if the City would allow sidewalk vending in residential areas.
“Certain provisions do allow it for roaming if you have push carts for ice cream, that is one provision allowed under state law,” said Butts.
Butts then made a motion to adopt the 1,000-foot radius.
Councilman Eloy Morales Jr. then said what the mayor proposed would move it too far, impacting the residential area and other small businesses.
Morales wanted to be able to control the vendors from bleeding into the residential area.
“What ends up happening if they give them a radius they are going to be right outside of it,” said Morales. “They basically go in 500 feet and I have seen the vendors that are literally standing there with full-on bars for people walking by.”
The biggest challenge for the council is finding a boundary that is suitable for SoFi Stadium considering 500 feet keeps vendors on their property while a 1,000-foot radius will extend into the residential areas.
Tucker didn’t address if there could be two separate boundaries for each venue. Whatever is established under the Street Vending Ordinance would also include the Intuit Dome, when it comes online in 2024, although that venue wasn’t addressed by showing a radius map for the property.
Either radius around the Intuit Dome would impact the residential area that surrounds it to the South and possibly the West.
“I’m more worried about how we accommodate the residents because another thing you are going to encourage is the crowding and the actual timeframe it takes to clear the area,” said Morales. “The Governor’s points…his ordinance in regards to…it doesn’t matter about a competitive economy in regards to the small business.”
The question then came up if street vending is allowed in neighborhoods.
“There is a provision that allows for roaming, however, the City, by way of its zoning rights, can restrict the times,” explained Tucker.
Councilman Alex Padilla also agreed with the 1,000-foot radius.
“We need to be a little bit more lenient when it comes to this and if the court says we need to pull back, then we can revisit it,” said Padilla. “In Santa Monica, we had a lot of vendors come on the beach and now they’re on the pier and they had to pull it back because it got so out of control.”
“We have to abide by state law but we also have our restrictions that we can impose,” said Padilla.
Councilwoman Dionne Faulk also agreed with the 1,000-foot radius.
“I also agree we should enlarge it to the 1,000 radius…in my readings my understanding is the 500 radius actually for SoFi Stadium would still put us within the SoFi lot so it doesn’t make sense to have a 500 radius and it doesn’t extend to the sidewalk outside SoFi Stadium,” said Faulk.
She then explained that the carts, around SoFi Stadium, restricts movements for attendees and the crowd ends up walking in the streets to get around the carts.
“We need to jump on top of that to make sure no one is hurt to attend a concert,” said Faulk.
There was a motion on the floor to vote on establishing a 1,000 feet radius surrounding the venues within the Inglewood Sports and Entertainment District, churches, the cemetery, and schools.
“There are too many moving parts so I want to withdraw that motion and table this matter,” said Butts.
Councilwoman Gloria Gray also agreed with the 1,000-foot radius but wanted to hear from the public on the matter since they will be most affected.
The public hearing will be scheduled for 2 p.m. on August 22.
1 Comment
It sounds like the council is working its hardest to make certain that Sofi and the Forum don’t face competition. Interestingly every time the they host a food truck event they create competition for the small restaurants of Inglewood.
Does that sound hypocritical to anyone?
Shouldn’t the boundary keep vendors out of our neighborhoods— after all we are the ones negatively impacted by traffic (keeping us locked in -or out of our homes) and by the herds of people being directed into our community by the “traffic management” .
Ms Faulk clearly couldn’t care less about the portion of District 4 south of Century- where thousands are directed onto Yukon in the midst of our neighborhoods.
The council should be protecting residents from impact brought in by their donors!!
Yeah that last sentence was either comedy or delusion.
If the carts are taking to much revenue from the big venues maybe the venues should sell what the carts are selling for a lesser price! We know they aren’t really suffering for lack of cash.