LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council gave a second and final vote of approval to an updated mobile catering ordinance at its Tuesday evening meeting.
The council held a public hearing for the second reading of the ordinance, the first reading of which was approved at the council's June 18 meeting.
The document explains that the city has had regulations limiting the “stopping for business time” for mobile catering units and mobile vendors since 1958.
City Planning Services Manager Andrew Britton told Lake County News that the city's original rules limited mobile vendors to 15 minutes at any given stop, which was increased to one hour in the 1990s.
More recently, vendor Joey DiDonato began selling hot dogs from his “Hey … Hot Dog!” cart downtown, parking longer than the city's longstanding one-hour time limit.
The city chose to update the rules to offer more flexibility to vendors like DiDonato but also to ensure that they were not intruding into the right of way, that equipment was kept in proper working order and that there were no freestanding equipment or signs.
The rules also seek to balance health and safety concerns, along with not granting an unfair business advantage to mobile caterers versus restaurants with established locations.
In 2012, the council asked city staff for information on how other communities regulate mobile food vendors.
A committee composed of two council members, city staff and interested community members was formed to look at updating the ordinance, meeting last September and November.
The group developed recommendations submitted to the council on Feb. 5, with the council voting to accept them and directing staff to prepare updated mobile catering regulations.
The new rules raise the time limit at a given location from one hour to two. There also is a new permitting process in which a vendor can apply to remain in a spot longer than two hours, but the vendor must be able to provide evidence of special circumstances that create a hardship in complying with the two-hour time limit.
While vendors meeting the two-hour time limit must be 60 feet from a brick and mortar restaurant, those seeking to have longer time at a location must be 120 feet away from an established restaurant, according to the ordinance rules.
There was no public comment on the ordinance other than DiDonato thanking the city for its efforts.
Mayor Tom Engstrom told DiDonato that he had heard a lot of favorable comments about him and his business.
Parlet moved to adopt the ordinance, with Council member Stacey Mattina seconding and the council voting 5-0.
Referring to the recent heat wave, Engstrom said to DiDonato after the vote, “It's pretty hard to stand out there to sell hot dogs.”
“I have the oven to keep me cool,” DiDonato replied.
In other news, the council voted to deny a request from Zumba instructor Melissa Maberry, who wanted to present classes in Library Park and the gazebo.
Maberry was not at the meeting due to a misunderstanding over when her item was to appear on the agenda, she said after the meeting.
There were concerns about music levels during the classes, but the council's main issue related to commercial use of the park, which hasn't previously been allowed.
Councilman Kenny Parlet suggested that if the council approved Maberry's request that they could expect hundreds of similar requests to use the park, and called it a serious can of worms.
Parlet said they needed to honor the needs of others who use the park, as well as those in nearby offices and businesses.
He said he thought the classes were better suited to a location other than the city's main park, and he moved to deny the request, which the council approved 5-0.
Also on Tuesday, the council met new city interns Anjanette Correia and Bryan Cochrane from the Mendocino College Cooperative Work Experience Education Program.
A planned presentation on lake weed abatement by Lake County Water Resources Director Scott De Leon was rescheduled to the next council meeting.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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