The changes surprised vendors, who negotiated with Penn for months over the bill's details. Campus vendors, already reeling from strong indications that a controversial ordinance regulating their businesses would become law, got even more bad news yesterday as City Council added amendments making the bill significantly harsher. Although Council gave its preliminary endorsement, as expected, to a revised version of the University-backed bill that would regulate vending on and around campus, it also added several amendments in a move that surprised both supporters and critics of the original legislation. Three of the four amendments added during yesterday's Council session were highly controversial. The new sections of the bill would eliminate the Vending Advisory Board that would have assigned vendors locations, deny vendors the right to transfer their licenses and institute a $2,700.50 annual fee for vendors' parking spaces instead of allowing them to use meters. In an expected move, the effective date of the ordinance was pushed back to July 22, 90 days after its probable enactment next Thursday. Council's decision to hold the final vote on the bill next week clears the way for the passage of the ordinance, which would ban food trucks and carts on many streets around campus and, a year after its enactment, prohibit electrical generators. To accommodate vendors displaced by the legislation, the University has promised to build five food plazas on its property to hold a total of 45 vendors. That proposal is separate from the bill. More than 90 vendors currently operate on and near Penn's campus. The two amendments regarding the Vending Advisory Board and the transferability of the permits were approved despite the objections of Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, who represents West Philadelphia and sponsored the ordinance. These two issues were among the few that University officials and vendor and consumer groups could reach agreement on during their long and often bitter negotiations since Penn began the controversy last May, when it submitted its first ordinance proposal to Blackwell. Yesterday's vote was the conclusion to a process that began with contentious eight-hour hearings Tuesday and an additional hour of hearings Wednesday. Council approved the amendment denying the vendors the right to transfer their licenses after Fran Egan, commissioner of the city's Department of Licenses and Inspections, said in her testimony Wednesday that vendors had no right to sell or transfer a license for the use of public property to another party. The vendors wanted transferability so that they could sell their entire businesses, including their locations, or trade licenses if they desired. But Council President John Street expressed his concern that under such a system, vendors with high levels of seniority could be passed over for prime vending locations. In lieu of the section that allowed transferability, an amendment was added that charged the Department of Licenses and Inspections to create a process for distributing licenses for specific locations that takes into account the seniority of the vendors. Scott Goldstein, the chairperson of the University City Vendors Alliance -- one of the ad hoc groups formed last summer in response to the initial proposal -- said he was angry with Council's move. The right to transfer licenses "was one of the few things [Blackwell] guaranteed she would stand by," Goldstein said. "We had no opportunity to discuss [the amendment] before." Council also approved the amendment eliminating the Vending Advisory Board on Egan's suggestion. Egan said on Wednesday that only the mayor could legally establish such a body. Blackwell will now organize a "technically unofficial" Vending Advisory Board that would have no official governmental power, but would instead serve as a discussion forum for the various groups affected by the ordinance. Carol Scheman, Penn's vice president for government, community and public affairs, said in a letter to Street sent Wednesday that the University was committed to participate in whatever forum Council and other city officials deemed appropriate. Matthew Ruben, spokesperson for the Penn Consumer Alliance -- the other ad hoc group that opposes the bill -- said he thought the Vending Advisory Board was particularly important because it "was the only mechanism where vendors and consumers could have any control over the process." The Vending Advisory Board would have reviewed vending regulations and recommended applicants for certain locations. It would have been composed of five vendors, three representatives of nonprofit institutions, three representatives of Penn's faculty, staff and students, two members of the business community and two members of neighborhood resident groups. The amendment to charge vendors a $2,700.50 annual fee in designated vending spots instead of using meters was suggested by Richard Dickson of the Philadelphia Parking Authority in his testimony Wednesday. This arrangement is similar to one in place at Drexel University, where food trucks must pay $3,000 annually for a spot on Drexel's campus on 32nd Street between Market and Chestnut streets. Vendors at and around Penn currently park at meters for most of the day. That is a violation of city traffic code, which prohibits staying past meters' allotted time capacity. The final, non-controversial amendment changed the bill so it goes into effect 90 days after its enactment instead of the original April 30. Street said the amendment was necessary to ensure the smooth transition of the vendors to the new policy.
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