Town attorney proposes six‑month moratorium on new door‑to‑door solicitor licenses

Irondequoit town officials on June 9 discussed a proposed local law that would impose a six‑month moratorium on issuing new licenses for peddlers, hawkers and door‑to‑door solicitors while staff studies possible changes to the town code.

Town Attorney Peter told the board the moratorium is intended to give staff time to consider code revisions addressing residents’ concerns and to avoid issuing new permits during that review. “We have proposed a local law to impose a moratorium for six months on soliciting and pedaling in the town and issuing new licenses while we consider changes to our code,” Peter said.

Supervisor Kurt Con said the town already runs background checks for solicitors and maintains a list with the police department and the clerk’s office, but residents often complain about strangers knocking on doors. “I think we do a good job on who we got walking in town,” he said, adding the town will seek to tighten the process where needed.

Board members raised potential policy details the moratorium should address: whether licensed companies could add additional door‑to‑door staff during the moratorium, how a proposed ‘no‑knock’ opt‑out list would be distributed to solicitors, and how any hardship or variance requests would be handled. Peter said the draft moratorium would not stop current licensees from operating and includes a variance/hardship mechanism to accommodate First Amendment concerns: “Somebody who’s already got a license will be able to continue operating,” he said.

Several members suggested staff work directly with the police and clerk’s office to design background‑check procedures and to test the logistics of a no‑knock list so that any code revision includes operational details on how solicitors would access the list and how additions to existing company crews would be handled.

The board did not adopt the moratorium at the workshop; Attorney Peter and staff will refine the proposed local law and return with more details on how the town would administer the policy and the hardship/variance process.

The proposal will come back to the board for further review and possible scheduling as a public hearing if the draft local law is finalized.