Council still wrestling with temporary business

The Sisters City Council is still trying to find its way through the policy thicket surrounding transient and temporary business license revisions. Members of the local business community and representatives of the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce and Sisters Folk Festival were on hand at last Thursday's workshop to listen to council discussion and to offer input on proposed changes.

Council has been wrestling with how to streamline the business license regulations and close current loopholes. There were originally two options on the table, until Councilors David Asson and Amy Bergstahler brought forward options three and four. Asson's proposal revolved around setting policies rather than outlining details and Bergstahler brought forth the possibility of establishing pods in specific locations where transient merchants could set up their booths.

Everything is still in the proposed draft stage, with nothing final yet in place. Council spent over two hours hashing out possibilities, discussing pros and cons of each option. When they ventured too far into details, Asson repeatedly returned to his primary contention that Council's job is to set policy that will provide direction to staff to work out the details.

"We have been narrowing it down for two years. We have to come up with guiding principles," he said. "Let principles guide codes."

There were several items on which Council did reach consensus: Transient merchants would be required to locate on improved property, which includes: curb, gutters, and sidewalks; on-street parking; active water, sewer and electric service; and on-site access to permanent restrooms. This requirement eliminates the ability of a large group of vendors to locate on a vacant lot, unless the required improvements are made to the lot. There was agreement that maintaining the current ambiance and look of the town is of primary importance.

Council also proposed eliminating the temporary business license. The avenue for businesses like the Christmas tree lot at the east end of town (currently the only business requiring a temporary license) would be to apply to the planning department for a Temporary Use Permit (TUP) or Site Plan Review and, after approval, purchase a regular business license.

Because of the above proposals, the 1880s theme requirement would no longer be needed for transient merchants. Council agreed that enforcing that requirement has proven nearly impossible due to inability to clearly define the theme. Bergstahler suggested it could be possible to incentivize adherence to the 1880s theme on the part of transient merchants by offering monetary or other considerations.

Mayor Chris Frye and Councilor Nancy Connolly have been informally surveying citizens, business owners and tourists to gauge public opinion on the issue of transient merchants in Sisters. Frye has found "there are lots of ideas and opinions out there." Because people are passionate about the topic, Frye thinks Council needs to do outreach to the public to gain a better feeling for what the citizens want.

Connolly admitted her sample was fairly small but heard the following, "Don't allow anything - no clutter," from older respondents. Younger people tended to support having food carts but think they should be centralized, and allow no other transient merchants.

City attorney Steve Bryant clarified that transient merchants have no guaranteed right to come to Sisters. Within that context, the City can easily write whatever they want into the code. It gets messy when exceptions start being made.

As the meeting wore on and the table became littered with more and more questions and possibilities, Bryant reiterated that Council can structure the ordinance any way they want. Whatever they do will not be a finished product. He encouraged them to let experience define the code.

"It's a social science experiment, not a math problem with a finite answer," Bryant concluded.

Richard Esterman, who organizes a number of public events in Sisters, offered the suggestion that Council follow Redmond's lead and form a committee of people to hash out the details of what the ordinance should look like, so that Council's time can be spent dealing with other City business. The committee could include City staff, Sisters citizens, representatives of the business community, transient merchants, and someone who is involved in public events like the folk festival or quilt show.

Frye indicated the ordinance has to be completed by January 1, 2016, because that's when new transient business licenses begin to be issued.

Brad Tisdel, creative director of the Sisters Folk Festival, said that whatever is finally crafted needs to put Sisters in the best light. The ordinance should be thoughtful of not allowing any event to negatively impact another. During this year's folk festival, there were problems of noise and access to one of the venues due to the street fair on Oak Street. The festival and Esterman, the street fair organizer, were able to work together to reduce the problems.

Council agreed to hold public meetings to hear from the citizens before resolving remaining issues, which include policy for the number of days a transient merchant may be in Sisters and where they can be located. Citizens are encouraged to watch for notification of the public meetings. Once those issues are resolved, the details will be worked out by staff and the City attorney and brought back to council for approval.