To: Board of Supervisors
From: Anna Roth, Health Services Director
Report Title: Ordinance No. 2025-03 to Amend Mobile Vendor Regulations
☒Recommendation of the County Administrator ☐ Recommendation of Board Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS:
INTRODUCE Ordinance No. 2025-03, amending the County’s mobile vendor regulations related to authorized hours and locations of operation, vending near certain specified uses, and vending within the public right-of-way to ensure public safety and prevent traffic hazards; WAIVE reading; and FIX February 4, 2025, for adoption.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no impact to the General Fund as a result of this ordinance. The Contra Costa Health Services Department, Environmental Health Division (EHD) is fully fee supported and verified enforcement actions would follow cost recovery procedures adopted by the Board in Resolution No. 2019/521.
BACKGROUND:
Due to feedback from the community and mobile vendors, staff recommends the following changes to Contra Costa County Ordinance Code Article 413-3.16 - Mobile Vendor Regulations:
1. Site defined as the footprint occupied by the mobile unit and the area within 100 feet of the occupied footprint; and
2. Max duration for vending at a single site revised to 3 hours per day per site; and
3. Restricted hours of operations to no vending during 10:00 pm and 6:30 am; and
4. Restricted distance for mobile vendors from community events, certified farmers’ market, or swap meet set to 100 feet.
Defining a site as 100 feet of the occupied food print will remove the ambiguity from the existing County Ordinance standard of maximum duration per day, per site for mobile vendors providing more clarity regarding their daily operations. Additionally, it will provide staff improved clarity for potential enforcement actions when necessary in unincorporated areas of the county.
To ensure food safety and sanitation standards are adequately met, staff recommends extending the maximum daily hour duration for mobile units at each site. This additional time will allow for thorough food and contact surface preparation, proper temperature control, and effective cleanup and trash disposal, thereby enhancing both food safety and overall environmental sanitation. The maximum duration per day, per site in the current ordinance is different for motorized and non-motorized mobile units which has caused confusion and is overly restrictive based on feedback staff has received from mobile vendors when evaluating the proposed modifications. The EHD recommends the maximum duration per day, per site apply to all mobile units regardless of motor status and be increased to three hours per day, per site to afford the mobile vendors a more reasonable time to vend in addition to making the ordinance easier for all types of mobile vendors to understand.
Staff surveyed other environmental health jurisdictions statewide and found no consistency with operational hours or health code requirements. Therefore, staff recommends modifying the hours of operation from the current restriction of no vending during 8:00 pm through 6:30 am to a revised restriction of no vending during 10:00 pm through 6:30 am, the following day. This recommendation is based on feedback from mobile vendors, who have indicated the current hours are too restrictive. The proposed adjustment would provide vendors with additional operational time, thereby enhancing their ability to conduct business.
The EHD has received complaints from community members and event operators over time regarding mobile vendors not affiliated with a designated community event, certified farmers’ market, or swap meet encroaching on the space occupied by the event. This presents a potential food safety hazard since the vendors participating in the designated events are permitted and inspected by the EHD whereas that may not be necessarily the case for mobile vendors encroaching on an event. There is not a current statewide standard for the distance an unaffiliated mobile vendor has to be from a designated event. Staff have consulted with the Bay Area Mobile Food Facility Roundtable composed of representatives from environmental health agencies throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and determined that there is not an overwhelming consensus amongst jurisdictions in the Bay Area either. Therefore, staff recommends the distance between unaffiliated mobile vendors and a designated community event, certified farmers’ market, or swap meet to be 100 feet to align with local municipal code, such as the City of Richmond’s recently adopted sidewalk vending ordinance. This provides consistency between city municipal code and County ordinance code, where applicable, for vendors traveling between incorporated and unincorporated areas.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
Ordinance No. 2025-03 will not be formally introduced to the Board of Supervisors and cannot be adopted as scheduled on February 4, 2025.