Memorandum

City of Lawrence

City Clerk’s Office

TO:	David L. Corliss, City Manager
FROM:	Jonathan Douglass, Assistant to the City Manager/City Clerk
CC:	Toni Wheeler, Director of Legal Services Diane Trybom, Deputy City Clerk
DATE:	April 8, 2010
RE:	Mobile Food Vendor License Proposal

In recent months, the City Clerk’s Office has received various inquiries regarding the ability to sell food and beverages from vans, trucks or trailers in the downtown area. Current city code does not provide for a license for such activity (which I have informally termed “mobile food vending”), and I believe that the code in fact would prohibit it. Selling food from a vehicle may fit the definition of a “peddler” (Section 6-801) and peddlers are prohibited from using a stationary location on the street without a temporary use of right-of-way permit (6-813). Staff would be reluctant to issue a temporary use of right-of-way permit for a mobile food vendor (peddler) without City Commission direction that this use of the public right-of-way, particularly downtown, serves the public interest. I am therefore recommending that the City Commission receive a request to establish a mobile food vendor license, and refer the request to staff for a future report.

ACTION:      Receive a request to establish a mobile food vendor license, and refer to staff for a report, if appropriate.