Got a business in Fayetteville and want to hold an outdoor “tent sale”? Then buy a permit, keep everything under one tent and limit it to four times a year. A proposed amendment on just this issue will get a first read at the Sept. 6 meeting of the Fayetteville City Council.
The proposed amendment would allow businesses to have occasional sales events in their parking lots in the form of a “parking lot tent sale.” City Director of Planning and Economic Development Brian Wismer said the amendment is being proposed to address concerns over outdoor merchandise displays. The amendment will also require that businesses purchase a permit to hold the sales.
If approved later this month, the amendment would require that any parking lot sales event contain all merchandise under one tent.
“This measure will ensure a cleaner, more aesthetically pleasing appearance to the public as the tent must be able to completely enclose the merchandise and will help to reduce unsightly displays from public view,” Wismer said.
The proposal also limits the number of events to four per year.
In a related matter, the council will hear the second reading of an ordinance to regulate flea markets. Wismer said last month that the intent of the ordinance is to provide formal guidelines for flea markets and not to prohibit them, adding that those guidelines would come with high standards of performance.
Wismer said city staff has fielded numerous citizen complaints and concerns about existing flea markets, adding that those businesses have created the need for ongoing staff inspections due to code violations and general safety concerns. Those concerns pertain primarily to conditions in the parking lots.
The current ordinance allows sales in parking lots, while the amended ordinance prohibits those sales. That is due largely to the city not having the staff to enforce the current version of the ordinance, said Wismer.
The ordinance would allow flea markets as special exceptions only in the C-3 (Highway Commercial) and M-1 (Light Manufacturing) zoning districts.
The proposed ordinance sets parameters for zoning, licensing, establishes interior design criteria and prohibits vendor sales in parking lots.
