MEMORANDUM 06-46

 

 

TO:             Mayor Hornaday / Homer City Council

 

FROM:       Walt Wrede

 

DATE:         March 7, 2006

 

SUBJECT:   Itinerant Merchants and Mobile Food Vendors

 

The City of Homer issues licenses for Itinerant Merchants and Mobile Food Vendors every year under the provisions of HCC 8.08 and HCC 8.11. This year, the number of inquiries the City has received from Itinerant Merchants and Mobile Food Vendors appears to be increasing significantly. I bring this to you attention for two reasons:

 

  1. Itinerant and Mobile Merchants can sometimes cause concern in the business community because they often compete with established merchants who pay property taxes and have long term investments in the community.
  2. There is increased interest in leasing City land for setting up these types of businesses.

 

Many itinerant merchants and mobile food vendors set up their businesses legally on private property with the consent of the property owner. The City has leased space for this purpose on City owned land on occasion. However, we are running out of good places to permit this activity. We have been having an internal debate about whether it might make sense to provide a single lot for lease by transient merchants.

 

The Police Chief, the Port and Harbor Director, and I have discussed this and have concluded that the best area to lease to itinerant merchants might be in an area close the road adjacent to the Fishing Hole, the City Campground, and the Theater. There may be other good alternatives that we have not thought of. Of course, there may be good reasons for not using City land for this purpose at all and the Council might want to discuss that.

 

RECOMMENDATION

 

Authorize the Manager to make a parcel of City land available on a one year trial basis to Itinerant Merchants for short term leases consistent with the provisions of HCC 8.08 and HCC 8.11.