Council approves first reading of ordinance regulating mobile merchants

By Kim McDarison

The Fort Atkinson City Council approved Tuesday a first reading of an ordinance developed to regulate mobile merchants operating within the city. 

City Manager Rebecca Houseman LeMire noted that the proposed ordinance serves to incorporate language previously in place within city code which was removed in 2020 when the city’s zoning ordinance was rewritten as well as incorporate some language not originally in the former code. 

In a memo to council, LeMire offered nine points which would be adopted into city code as part of the proposed ordinance. They include: 

• Changing the authority to issue a Mobile Merchant License from the Plan Commission to the city clerk.

• Establishing an appeal process which would bring an application before the city council would it be denied by the city clerk and police chief.

• Eliminating former code which created a lottery and payment for a mobile merchant to be located in a city parking lot. 

• Prohibiting mobile merchants on residential or public lands, including streets, sidewalks, parks and parking lots. An exception would be allowed for a merchant receiving approval through a special event permit.

• Eliminating the fees from the ordinance, referencing instead a “fee resolution,” which would be adopted annually by the city council. 

• Adding a requirement that the merchant’s date of birth be included on the license application. 

• Adding a requirement listing the merchant’s hours of operation on the license application. 

• Limiting the number of daily licenses permitted in a calendar year to four. The prior ordinance did not establish a limit. 

• Changing some language within the ordinance for clarity and consistency. 

If the ordinance is adopted, LeMire said, the city clerk would provide a monthly report to the city council listing all staff-approved licenses issued that month. The report would be placed on the council’s consent agenda for approval. 

Offering some background, LeMire said the city regulated mobile merchants for many years. In 2016, the ordinance regulating mobile merchants was amended and included within the city’s Zoning Ordinance. After the language was removed from the Zoning Ordinance in 2020, the city did not have any regulation within its municipal code relating to mobile merchants. 

“As a ‘stop gap,’ staff has been requiring a license and using the regulations of the previously approved ordinance from the previous Zoning Code,” LeMire wrote in her memo. 

LeMire further noted that the city attorney and the city’s department heads, as well as the Ordinance Committee, had reviewed the proposed draft ordinance. 

Any changes recommended by the council or committee would be incorporated into the draft and made available for review during its second and third readings. 

“Staff is attempting to move this ordinance forward quickly as the summer is the busy season for mobile merchants, and we continue to receive applications,” LeMire wrote. 

A second reading of the proposed ordinance is anticipated to take place on June 1. 

Ordinances, and amendments that change them, within the city of Fort Atkinson are subject to three readings unless council opts to waive future readings.