The Los Gatos City Council voted unanimously to approve restrictions on sidewalk merchandising on the town at its Nov. 19 assembly.
The council was set to undertake a revised ordinance on Dec. 3, after which sidewalk distributors can have 30 days to acquire permits. Below the brand new restrictions, distributors should function with restricted hours and will likely be prohibited from blocking enterprise entrances.
The revisions are the results of a examine session the council hosted in August. The brand new restrictions additionally bar sidewalk merchandising in areas zoned as completely residential and limits the variety of distributors on the town parks at any given time to make sure that the “character and use of parks are not affected.”
Los Gatos city workers cautioned that officers would additionally have to give you a brand new sidewalk merchandising allow price and a formalized utility kind earlier than the brand new insurance policies go into impact.
Different cities within the Bay Space have just lately taken up the matter of sidewalk merchandising, just like the East Bay metropolis of Richmond, which noticed controversy this yr over when the brand new insurance policies would go into impact.
The examine session on sidewalk merchandising in Los Gatos was the results of Senate Invoice 946, laws that handed the state senate in 2018 that decriminalized sidewalk merchandising and put limits on the restrictions that cities and cities in California might implement for sidewalk distributors.
“I think this is a really thoughtful way to address the unique challenges we had in Los Gatos,” council member Rob Moore mentioned of the brand new insurance policies.