The Santa Barbara council recently approved some changes to the city’s sidewalk vendor ordinance.

“The city is just trying to comply and adapt to the state law and just making sure that everything is being permitted and being safe for the vendor and the public,” Santa Barbara City Councilman Oscar Gutierrez said.

The changes include requiring street and sidewalk vendors to possess a valid California driver’s license, identification card or other form of government identification.

The changes, approved at the Jan. 30 City Council meeting, also make clear that a person cannot sell on private property unless they have permission from the property owner.

In addition, vendors without a license may have their equipment impounded and then billed by the city. If the owner doesn’t retrieve the cart within 60 days, it is forfeited to the city.

Assistant City Attorney John Doimas said the changes were designed to clean up the ordinance. The city adopted a sidewalk vending ordinance in March 2022. It didn’t enforce it during the first year, so it spent the past year identifying issues to address in the ordinance.

Doimas said there are 18 licensed vendors within the city. Gutierrez said there definitely are more people than that who are vending without a license.

“It is definitely an issue that we are trying to address, but for the most part they are being respectful and courteous to the community, and just trying to make a living,” Gutierrez said.

He said it is “really important” for the city to allow street vending.

“It’s a good stepping stone for people to move up and be able to open a conventional, stable business,” Gutierrez said. “It is cultural. There are cultures all over the world where street vending is the norm.”

Gutierrez said he wants people to come forward and get a permit.

“I encourage everyone to try to get a permit and sell something you really care about or something you feel like the community can use, and just foster the local economy,” Gutierrez said.

Senate Bill 946, passed in 2018, allows sidewalk vending, stating that it provides “important entrepreneurship and economic development opportunities to low-income and immigrant communities.”

Sidewalk vendors sell everything from mangos on a stick covered in lime and chile and watermelon aqua fresca to chips and soft drinks, to hot food and fresh-cut flowers all over parts of Santa Barbara.

The vendors are popular in neighborhoods, parks and near schools, where students and families can enjoy something refreshing without having to hop in a car to go to a market.