New Westminster city council is looking at ways to liven up city streets.
Council has expressed an interest in expanding the city's street activity program, which was first developed in 1997 to allow street entertainment and some street vending to take place in designated places in downtown New Westminster.
"The intent of the program was to enhance street vitality and create employment opportunities for small business operators, while ensuring no business was taken away from existing commercial tenants/owners," a staff report to council states. "In 2009, the program was expanded to include locations in the downtown and to permit the sale of perishable foods."
After considering the issues, staff recommended that street entertainment (buskers) would remain at current locations in the downtown (excluding the esplanade), but some new regulations would be adopted. These include auditioning before being issued a permit, limiting their time to two hours at any one location and avoiding any "highrisk or unsafe performances," such as juggling knives or flaming objects.
Staff noted that there has been
increasing interest in food and non-food vending within the entire city. Inquiries have come from hot dog vendors, painters/ artists, crafters selling homemade goods, a shoe polisher and a flower vendor.
A report indicated that proposed changes to the existing street activity program would insist that the vendor not be within 60 metres of the entrance of a business selling a similar product and would expand to include locations outside downtown. If more than one applicant meets all the city's requirements, a lottery would be held to select the vendor.
Staff noted that vendors need to be in locations where there are a lot of pedestrians, where sidewalks are wide enough to accommodate pedestrians and vendors, and where vendors won't conflict with parking meters or people's access to parked vehicles.
Currently, the street activity program includes vendors and entertainment on the esplanade, Hyack Square and New Westminster SkyTrain station on Eighth Street. Vendors, depending on the merits of the applications, can use some other downtown locations.
Under the revised program, food or nonfood vendors would be considered outside the New Westminster and Columbia SkyTrain stations, Hyack Square, outside the police station, at 351 East Colombia St. in Sapperton and at New Westminster Public Library plaza. While other locations in the downtown would be evaluated on their merits, the esplanade would be excluded.
Coun. Betty McIntosh noted that an existing non-food vendor has been able to use the area outside the Fraser River Discovery Centre, but that area will be off limits under the proposed recommendations. While she agrees that food vendors shouldn't be permitted at that location, McIntosh questioned why a non-food vendor wouldn't be allowed.
Coun. Bill Harper said River Market has been extremely concerned about food vendors as they compete with the market's tenants.
Lisa Spitale, the city's director of development services, said the city didn't allow any vendors on the esplanade before River Market closed for renovations. She said the assumption was that once the market reopened, the city would return to its practice of not allowing vendors on the esplanade.
The changes proposed in the staff report won't be implemented this year. Council tabled the report and will discuss it at a later date.
