The City of Lee’s Summit is considering an ordinance to regulate mobile food vendors. My purpose here is not to discuss whether such ordinances are needed or even advisable. Rather, it is to issue a caution about potential unintended consequences that could arise should the ordinance be poorly crafted or even a properly crafted but unwisely enforced.
In numerous communities nationwide, such ordinances have been used to stifle one of the great American rights of passage for children. For example:
Hazelwood, MO, March 2011: Girl Scouts were prohibited from selling cookies in their own driveway.
Rio Nido, CA, August 7, 2001: Zoning officials shut down a 12-year old girl’s snack stand.
Naples, FL, June 28, 2011: Naples officials demanded closure of a lemonade stand operated by three kids under the age of 9.
St. Louis, MO, August 2004: The St. Louis Health Department shut down two girls selling lemonade.
Salem, MA, August 3, 2005: An 11 year-old and a 9 year-old selling lemonade were ordered to shut down after a nearby sausage vendor complained they were negatively affecting his business.
Midway, GA, July 15, 2011: Police shut down a lemonade stand of three young girls because they did not first obtain a business license, a peddler’s license, and a food permit.
I do not mean imply that anything nefarious is going on in the City Council. The point is to make sure that any ordinance is specific in its reach and is designed to solve clearly defined problems, if in fact there really is a problem.
Having said that, whether there really is a problem to be solved is the question that should be answered first.
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