Street vending in Charlotte, N.C., is now off limits on city streets and sidewalks except in pre-approved locations, after the Charlotte City Council voted Monday night to adopt a new ordinance on the practice.
The council backed the measure by a nearly unanimous margin. It prohibits selling merchandise on public streets and sidewalks, with exceptions for vendors who obtain permits to work at city-sanctioned events. The designated vending zones are, for now, concentrated in the busy Uptown business district.
The ordinance sets up a path for additional vending areas to be permitted later, though the timeline for opening any new zones is still unclear. City staff described a process for creating marketplaces patterned after the Tryon Street program for Uptown vendors, where specific vendors can sell at set times of day.
Council members said the goal is structure, not an end to street vending. Vendors have long set up in NoDa and Uptown, but crowded sidewalks have raised space and safety worries for more than a year.
The most debated piece was enforcement. Council member Dimple Ajmera, an at-large Democrat, moved to remove criminal penalties, and the council turned down a proposal that would have criminalized a vendor’s third offense inside a single month. Under the rules as passed, violators face civil fines capped at $500 for each offense, and repeated trouble could eventually cost a vendor the license.
Ajmera said the city should help vendors comply rather than criminalize small business owners, and she said she would consider bringing back criminal charges if repeat offenders prove to be a significant issue. City police are developing a way to log citations as they are issued.
District 7 Council member Ed Driggs, a Republican, raised concerns that some vendors might simply pay fines or ignore citations and keep operating, and he said police need some form of enforcement authority to make non-compliant vendors move or stop.
Renee Johnson also questioned the ordinance’s use of the word peddlers, calling it outdated and asking whether the city should say street vendors instead. Deputy City Manager Shawn Heath said the designated locations allow particular vendors to sell specific products at certain times of day.
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