Atlanta City Council approves public vending ordinance as city officials face judge over old program

The Atlanta City Council approved a new public vending ordinance Monday as a Fulton County judge decides whether to hold Mayor Kasim Reed in contempt of court over the old program.

The public vending ordinance outlines everything from items vendors will be allowed to sell, to the design of carts and kiosks they can operate, to where their businesses can be located. The new program will be overseen by the Atlanta Police Department’s License and Permits Unit.

The council passed the legislation by 11 to 2, with District 2 Councilman Kwanza Hall and District 9 Councilwoman Felicia Moore voting against it.

Vendors including Larry Miller, head of the Atlanta Vendors Association, said they’re likely to challenge the new program in court because of restrictions on things such as items they can sell. He’s among the public street vendors who have been locked in litigation with city officials in recent years over a 2009 decision to turn the vending program over to a private management company.

Robert Frommer, the vendors’ attorney with the Institute for Justice, also urged the council to reject Reed’s new vending proposal and said if passed, the legislation will send the city back to court.

Frommer said the new program is riddled with problems and pointed to a provision that a vendor cannot sell an item if a nearby brick and mortar business sells the product.

“We have sued cities across the nation over that and the courts have repeatedly struck down that provision,” he said.

“The passage of this law will not fix the problem; it will only create more problems,” he said.

City officials, including Reed and deputy chief operating officer Hans Utz, defended the program as fair.

“This ordinance is about being fair, fair to vendors in the kiosks, fair to non-kiosk vendors and fair to small business, small entrepreneurial brick and mortar businesses,” Utz said.

In its first phase, the program would allow for 31 vendors to operate on public streets in downtown Atlanta. The second phase, city officials say, would begin early next year and add more than 50 locations for carts across the city, including on the Atlanta Beltline.

City officials said vendors will not be allowed to return to Five Points, a once-popular downtown location for vendors that prompted complaints of disorderliness. And the proposal leaves out options near Turner Field, though city officials note vendors can sell there on nearby private property.

Post 1 At-Large Councilman Michael Julian Bond said the legislation was long overdue.

“This has gone on for a long time,” he said. “I think it’s time to put these folks back to work and in a program that will look good, be managed correctly and one everyone can support.”

Hall, for his part, said he opposed the legislation because many vendors were not on board. That, he said, gave him “pause.”

Despite the council’s vote, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shawn LaGrua will rule today whether to hold Reed in contempt of court for refusing to grant public vending permits.

Last December, LaGrua struck down the agreement between the city and Chicago-based General Growth Properties to privately manage the vending program.