A04 • Friday, July 29, 2011 • The Record
Larry Wright/THE RECORD
Public space: The area outside New Westminster SkyTrain station is being eyed as a possible location for vendors in the downtown neighbourhood.
Streets: Does city need livening up? ◗ continued from page 1
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.
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