Phoenix requires licenses for out-of-town businesses

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PHOENIX — The City Council voted Monday night to require business licenses from out-of-town business owners seeking to operate inside city limits.

The more than two-hour meeting yielded plenty of council discussion on open burning, nuisance noises and business license requirements, although there was minimal public comment. Unresolved issues will be discussed Dec. 1.

In the process of revising outdated ordinances, council members navigated through a half-inch thick packet of information detailing tighter restrictions on various city issues.

Business owner and former planning commissioner Sandy Christiansen, the only audience member of three in attendance to stand and speak, voiced concerns with the business license decision, questioning who who would police the new law.

City Manager Jane Turner said the law primarily would be guided by the honor system, adding that business owners who seek business inside the city, such as tool salesmen or door-to-door solicitors, would require a business license.

Out-of-town businesses simply delivering requested goods or services to city residents or business owners, on the other hand, would not, she said.

Councilman Mike Stitt said his primary focus for the business license law was that Phoenix should try to "avoid mirroring Medford," which enacted a similar law last year and sent letters demanding license compliance from out-of-town business owners.

Newly appointed Councilman Herman Blum, the only member to vote against the ordinance, was worried the business license law, which takes effect in 29 days, would "ruin the business that's in town already."

The proposed ordinances to be discussed Dec. 1 include:

• A right-of-way and encroachment ordinance that would require a permit for operating within the public right of way, giving city officials authority to restrict or be informed of work done by contractors or utility companies. Public Works Director Bob Lewis noted that a regional utility provider had "dug into" a recently repaved road without notifying the city of its plans to do so.
• A noise ordinance, if approved, would allow city police to enforce a "reasonable person's" idea of obnoxious noises and require special permits for special events, parades and construction excavation.

Council members agreed on the need for such an ordinance, although Councilman Mike McKey paused to comment on the range of issues discussed Monday.

"The town must be getting too big. All these years we didn't have to have all this," he said.

A final ordinance, a proposed ban on open burning, yielded the most debate. It had been reviewed and tabled in January, and Monday the council was divided yet again on which way to vote.

McKey, who opposes a ban, said he felt Department of Environmental Quality officials should seek such a law at the state level instead of "dumping it on us as a city to be the bad guys."

Stitt said banning open burning for residents seemed unfair with so many other types of burning done more regularly, such as that done by the U.S. Forest Service. However, Councilman Terry Helfrich, an orchardist, called the law a "no-brainer," and he encouraged the city to find ways to dispose of leaves and other debris other than burning.

Helfrich said it would be poor stewardship of the environment and unfair to residents with respiratory issues not to enact a ban on open-barrel burning. Newly appointed Councilman Stan Bartel seemed to side with Helfrich and voiced concern for neighbors with breathing difficulties.

Buffy Pollock is a freelance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at buffypollock@juno.com.

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