Agenda Item # 2.1 - Dan Nelson | Received 07/18/2023Dear City Council and City Administration
Good afternoon. I was asked to provide some comments and feedback regarding food vendors
and food carts in the city of Gilroy.
As we all know, protecting the public health, safety and welfare of this city is the most
important. I have reviewed in great detail the proposed regulations that the City is proposing
and have many public health, safety and welfare issues that are still outstanding that need to
be addressed to make this a comprehensive document.
I wanted to prepare a very detailed document addressing these specifically, but since I only got
everything in a few days, I did not have time to prepare everything in great detail. But I thought
it would be very helpful for the council and city administration to look more into some of these
issues.
I know many others have comments but let me outline some of things need to be added to the
document that effect public health, safety and welfare of this city.
• If a vendor is cited, they should cease operations immediately upon being cited and
have 30-45 minutes to vacate their space.
• Important to allow only 1 permit per person or family.
• Everyone who applies in Gilroy should have preference over the first number of licenses
provided.
• Any out of town vendors applying should cost substantially more to provide our Gilroy
residents to participate.
• Every person or company who applies must have a name attached to that license and
we need enforcement if someone passes that license on to anyone they want.
• The permit provided by the city must require the same level of health approvals needed
for festival and events, including but not limited too, hand wash stations, sealed booth
with only certain opening, each person must have a handlers permit that is serving food
(same as restaurants) and much more. This is a critical issue for public health and safety
that this is done.
• It states that no sign not attached to the booth is allowed but does not address the
actual size of the sign on the booth.
• The use of Generators should never be allowed. This will require many safety issues
including but not limited to noise problems and fire safety issues as well. This needs to
be strictly enforced.
• If vendor leaves trash behind (himself or from his customers), he should be fined a
certain amount, especially if they leave it on other peoples property.
• A minimum Distance should be required from setting up from the front of every
business door to protect emergency egress in case of a fire or evacuation. There is a
legal distance required by law in case all buildings were on fire or evacuation is required.
By not providing this distance, it will be a safety issue for everyone inside those
buildings. Based on certain occupancies I was told it could be as much as 100 feet in
either direction that needs to be clear. Different lengths for different businesses.
• Because of the issue above and others, operating hours for vendors should be kept to
daytime hours only to avoid a very serious safety risk to everyone in those
establishments.
• We must limit the number of permits provided so downtown does not look like a
festival every single day and businesses will be unsafe to evacuate.
• Workers comp must be provided in the permitting process so we are certain we are
protecting those people working in those booths. This is critical because if someone was
to get hurt and does not have insurance, this could create both legal issues for the
booth owners and also legal issues for the city for not making it mandatory to provide.
• The amount of insurance must be sufficient to cover any issues that arise (standard
insurance that is required for businesses)
• Booths permitted must be photographed and cannot differ from what is shown in the
permit provided.
• Vendors cannot be any closer than 100 feet from where a patio or parklet is so the
smoke and noise does not interfere with the patrons. This is very serious since currently
this is a very serious issue and has made customers in other businesses sick.
• BBQ and anything that produces smoke cannot be used at any time since Smoke can
and has been a problem and has affected people’s health in many ways.
• Vendors cannot use downtown parking spaces at anytime and their booth will be cited if
they do. Considering we are very short spaces downtown this is a serious safety issue
that some people have to park far away and especially if handicap is not available.
These are some of my thoughts and hope this will be helpful for you to come up with final
policies for street vendors
Thank you
Sincerely
Dan Nelson