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Fargo staff, vendors and downtown stakeholders seek rules to balance pushcarts, safety and costs; permits extended 90 days
Summary
City planning staff and the Downtown Community Partnership heard vendor and business concerns about late‑night pushcart operations, enforcement gaps and cost parity; staff extended existing permits for 90 days while they propose ordinance and operational changes.
FARGO — City planning staff and downtown stakeholders met to address recurring problems with sidewalk food pushcarts, including disputes over late‑night sales, cleanup and who should shoulder the costs of maintaining busy downtown sidewalks.
Planning Director Nicole Crutchfield told the group that chapter 18 of the municipal code governs pushcarts on public sidewalks and that operating permits require approvals from both the public health office and the planning department. She said staff have extended current permits for 90 days "to resolve some of these tensions" while staff, the Downtown Community Partnership and city departments develop changes.
"I've only extended the current permits for 90 days, giving us 90 days to resolve some of these tensions," Crutchfield said, noting the existing rules date to about 2006 and that enforcement has grown more complicated in recent years.
Rocky Schneider, executive director of the Downtown Community Partnership (which…
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