Earlier this spring the Albany City Council, against the advice of its staff and the city police, whose officers have more urgent things to do, enacted new regulations to discourage temporary vendors on private property. A new example shows that this additional burden is perhaps the most ill-advised law on the city's books.

The law says that that somebody renting private property for a temporary business must pay a $100 license fee and then is limited to run the business for only 30 consecutive days. Then he's out of business until the following year.

Joe Seymour went to the council last Wednesday to complain. He builds scratching posts and other "cat furniture." Occasionally, on a Sunday, he rents space in a parking lot at Santiam Highway and Waverly Drive, paying the owner $35 for the day. He says he did so maybe four or five times in the last six months.

The new city law will put him out of business. Even if he wanted to pay the $100 fee, it would be good for only a month. In his case that might be one or two Sundays of selling his wares.

So what good is the city accomplishing by putting a local craftsman and part-time merchant out of business?

Seymour complained to the council that the new regulation of his kind of business was selectively enforced, and he has a point.

The ordinance applies to any temporary vendor, even one who operates indoors, in a storefront. But of course the city knows better than to enforce it there. This would compound the mistake.

Technically, the law also applies inside Heritage Mall. But the temporary vendors there are not being bothered, as they shouldn't be. It's none of the city's business who rents space from the mall.

The ordinance was prompted by concern that a seasonal plant store in the old Safeway parking lot was taking business from a nearby, established garden center without facing any of the same overhead costs, and without the same history of supporting community causes. But this interference in free enterprise also has a cost, not the least of which is that it puts a burden on local people like Joe Seymour.

The city says that in response to a complaint, it sent somebody from the police to remind the owner of the private lot at Waverly and Santiam about the requirements of the ordinance.

As a result, according to the city, one of the longtime vendors there, who sells Hood River apples and other fruit in season, has inquired about becoming a "permanent" business. That means the filing of a site plan with the planning department. Maybe he'll have to put in landscaping around his apple carts.

You would think that in America, a property owner would be free to rent space on his land for any lawful activity. But not in Albany. In Albany it's legal only for 30 days, and only with a lot of red tape. (hh)