ORANGE : Hot Dog Carts at Fixed Sites Planned

The City Council on Tuesday moved toward allowing hot dog carts to set up shop in the city, but tight restrictions accompanying the ordinance will limit the number of vendors able to cut the legal mustard.

The council, which has considered the issue several times in the past few years, unanimously adopted a Planning Commission resolution to permit free-standing, mobile vending carts to operate at fixed locations in the city. Council members, who will probably vote next week on the ordinance itself, have in the past resisted allowing pushcarts because of health concerns and the threat of proliferation.

The proposed ordinance requires vendors to operate at least 200 feet from schools, residential zones, parks and churches, and maintain a 300-foot buffer between carts and public streets. It states that sales would be restricted “primarily” to hot dogs.

Those requirements, council members said, would keep carts in privately owned, pedestrian areas. Examples of suitable sites mentioned have been the entrance of the Home Depot at 435 W. Katella Ave. or the courtyard of the Union Bank at 500 S. Main St.

Written permission from the property owners would be required, and only one cart could operate per site. A one-year review of the new guidelines is to be included in the proposed ordinance. Sidewalk sales and wandering vendors would remain prohibited in the city.