Alexandria’s Planning Commission endorsed a new pilot program (docket item 4) that will allow on-street vending in designated spaces on Mount Vernon Avenue as consistent with the city’s master plan.
The one-year pilot will allow limited vending on the 3800 block of Mount Vernon Avenue. Vendors are allowed to sell whole, uncut produce and a limited number of small, non-food items in on-street spaces.
Vendors are required to obtain permits and comply with health and safety requirements.
Street vending is already common in Arlandria, but the pilot seeks to expand on the city’s previous parklet efforts to legitimize and regulate vending in the neighborhood.
The staff report said the pilot is a compromise that’s neither fully satisfied current street vendors nor local businesses.
The pilot is limited to five designated on-street spaces, and vendors beyond the five chosen for the program on a first-come, first-served basis are out of luck. Staff said vendors “do not quality under health permitting options for the sale of food in the manner in which they would like.”
Staff also said four businesses in the neighborhood raised concerns about implementation, compliance with rules, conflicts with parking and obscuring store visibility.
Steve Weinstock, a managing partner of the Del Ray North Shopping Center, said three of his tenants have expressed concern about street vendors impacting businesses.
“We’ve had problems with parking, problems with them selling on our property, and had to chase them with police help,” Weinstock said. “What we really need in the neighborhood is more law enforcement and we need them to be more active.”
Planning Commissioner Mindy Lyle raised concerns about the city’s ability to implement the regulations drafted as part of the pilot.
“I know from talking to APD [the Alexandria Police Department] this morning that a program manager was hired that quit shortly after they were hired because they found that this program was not managable,” Lyle said. “So have you found someone else to be hired?”
City staff said they were still actively looking to fill the position. While part of the pilot involves a request to City Council for more resources to allow enforcement on weekends, Lyle noted that the Health Department — one of the agencies that would partially be responsible for enforcement — told her they don’t work after 5 p.m. or on weekends, times when street vending is most common.
“We don’t have any parameters set, we don’t have a start date or end date, we don’t have operating hours, and we don’t have any idea who is in charge of enforcement,” said Lyle.
“We are not resourced to have 24-hour enforcement in any part of this city of the type that you are requesting,” said Planning Director Karl Moritz. “It may be that part of the pilot identifies additional enforcement or monitoring resources. It is a lot to ask a vendor pilot program to take on all of the issues affecting Arlandria, but we can’t help but be better positioned to address those issues [with this program].”
Others on the Planning Commission said their role was not to handle enforcement, but to see whether the pilot was consistent with the Alexandria Master Plan.
“I do believe this is consistent with the Master Plan at the very least,” said Planning Commission Chair Nathan Macek.
The pilot was approved in a 3-2 vote with Commissioners Jody Manor and Mindy Lyle voting against it.
