Atlanta’s vending program overhaul to include street vendors... and food trucks?

• Max Blau/CL File
• Atlanta vendors protest outside City Hall this summer

City Hall is slowly getting closer to unveiling its new program that would allow vendors to sell goods on the city’s sidewalks once again. And, quite possibly, improving the complicated policies related to how - and where - food trucks can actually serve tacos and sandwiches.

The city’s vendors have been blocked from selling oils, t-shirts, and bottled drinks for the majority of this year after Fulton County Judge Shawn Ellen LaGrua last December tossed out the controversial contract the city signed with Chicago-based General Growth Properties. That decision effectively left the city without vending rules or guidelines and has prevented vendors from legally selling goods outside Turner Field and near Five Points.

Earlier this week, however, LaGrua ordered City Hall to issue vending permits under its prior ordinance. The decision followed months of protests from street vendors, who’ve been outraged over Mayor Kasim Reed’s slow response to the matter and stalled attempts from Atlanta City Council to find a temporary fix.

Reed said the city plans to appeal - a move that would send the case to the Supreme Court of Georgia.

“The bottom line is I’m not going to allow Atlanta to be turned into a swap meet,” Reed said in a statement. “If you go to Five Points right now and look at it, it is a night and day difference than the way that it had looked for the last 20 years. We’re not going back there.”

As the legal skirmishes continue, it’s unlikely that anything will change for vendors until the city rolls out its new vending program. Although few details have been released yet, Reed spokeswoman Melissa Mulinax tells CL the new policy will “include parameters around location, saleable items, appearance, and regulation.”

While they’re still deciding how the program will operate, city officials are currently assessing vending programs in Chicago, Kansas City, Charlotte, Portland, Boston, New York, Denver, Dallas, and Raleigh. Whatever program the city chooses to adopt, Councilman Michael Julian Bond thinks it needs to happen fast to allow vendors to get back in business.

“My only concern is the timing and how quickly can they get this accomplished,” Bond tells CL. “We need a strict program, one that has a tight definition of how the stands will look, operate, and be very clear about what happens when there are violations and what types of merchandise that should be sold.”

But it’s not just street vendors who might see some progress. According to Mulinax, the mayor’s office plans to use the time it’s working on the vending program to also improve the city’s food truck policies. Since Councilman Kwanza Hall helped revised the food truck codes in 2011, issues have arisen with the Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness’ outdated approval process as well as limitations on how much food preparation and cooking can happen inside trucks. Those - and the matter of food trucks being restricted to private property - are just a few possible changes up for debate.

“We see this vending re-write as an opportunity to present a comprehensive solution related to the city’s right of way,” she says.

It remains to be seen what the program ultimately entails. But the city’s public vending document offers a look at the kinds of programs Atlanta may emulate. We’ve embedded the document after the jump.

? ? ?