Coachella Approves New Sidewalk Vendor Regulations

The Coachella City Council is set to take a final vote on its new sidewalk vendor regulations at its Wednesday meeting, nearly four years after a draft of the ordinance was first considered.

“Our staff has looked into this thoroughly,” Councilmember Neftali Galarza said at the Feb. 28 meeting. “We saw this in the city council meeting last month, we’ve seen it in city councils many months before. I think we’re at a place where we’re ready to move forward.”

At that meeting, the council approved the first reading of the sidewalk vendor ordinance — which includes restrictions on where, when and how sidewalk vendors can operate within the city — and adopted a resolution setting vendor application fees in the city.

“There would be two different tiers,” Development Services Director Gabriel Perez said.

For Coachella Valley residents, the initial application fee for a city permit would be $125, with the fee to renew set at $100. For vendors from outside of the Coachella Valley, the initial application fee would be $300, with the renewal fee set at $165.

“With these fees, we can’t collect more than the actual work that goes into the processing of the applications,” Perez said. “So the Coachella Valley resident rate is actually a little bit lower than what goes into processing those applications.”

Perez estimated that, with the new ordinance in place, vendors might also incur additional fees of about $475 from the county and the city in order to obtain the appropriate permits and licenses to operate. This would be in addition to the new permit application fee.

“In addition to the fees and having the ordinance in place, we want to support the community, the sidewalk vendor community, and provide education about what’s required to get a permit,” Perez said. “So there are two events that we will be coordinating.”

The first information event is set to take place Thursday from 4-6 p.m. at the Coachella Library, located at 1500 6th St. A second information event will be held 4-6 p.m. on March 28, also at the library. At these events, vendors can learn how to obtain a permit before the new ordinance goes into effect.

At the Feb. 28 meeting, Councilmember Denise Delgado thanked the business community as a whole for continuing to show up to make their voices heard.

“You know, you guys show up to community meetings, you show up to the planning commission meetings, you show up to, you know, everything that is needed to be able to push your agenda, make sure that you guys are being treated fairly,” she said. “So I want to thank you for your commitment and being dedicated to see this go through.”

With this ordinance, which has been in development since it was first brought to the city council in October 2020, the council hopes it will alleviate some concerns from the city’s larger business community about differences in treatment between sidewalk vendors and brick-and-mortar businesses.

“I think when we first started, our goals were to be fair, were to be just and were to be equal, and I think that this ordinance balances that,” Mayor Steven Hernandez said.