Posted on 06/28/2024
The City Council has approved an ordinance to amend Section 42.13.B.2 of Article 2, Chapter IV of the Los Angeles Municipal Code (LAMC), reducing the fee for a vending operating permit to $27.51 annually.
Last year, the City Council directed the City Administrative Officer (CAO) to recalculate the annual sidewalk and park vending permit fee, excluding enforcement costs, and considering the average annual income of street vendors.
According to a report by the Economic Roundtable, the average income of a vendor is approximately $11,300 per year. The fee also had to comply with California Constitution Proposition 26, which mandates that permit fees be based on actual city costs. The CAO, in consultation with the Bureau of Street Services, reviewed the process required to issue a vending permit and calculated the associated costs. The Bureau reports that issuing a vending permit takes approximately 20 minutes for a senior administrative clerk. Currently, the City issues an average of 944 permits annually (about 78 per month). If the city continues to issue the same number of permits, the annual revenue will exceed $25,000, which will cover the permit processing costs.