Davis's rules for street vendors and food trucks remain unfinished, and as of the city's most recent published calendars they have no hearing date. The Planning Commission's calendar, published for its Oct. 28 meeting, lists the private-property mobile vending ordinance among pending items with no set date, and the commission's Sept. 23 and Oct. 28 agendas did not include it. The commission's calendar notes that dates can change until an item is publicly noticed. The City Council's long-range calendar, published Oct. 20, does not list the vending ordinances. In July, the city manager had told the council the vending ordinance would probably be the first of several pending items to come forward over the next six months.
The city is preparing two related ordinances. One, an amendment to the zoning code (Chapter 40), would regulate mobile vendors such as food trucks, trailers and carts on private property; the Planning Commission is to hold a hearing on it and make a recommendation to the council. The other, for sidewalk vendors in the public right of way, would go in Chapter 28 of the municipal code and does not need commission review. Both include licensing and fee changes, and staff plans to present them to the council together as one program. A sidewalk vendor ordinance that the police chief had been working on was scheduled for the council on Feb. 17 but was pulled from that night's agenda; staff later said it was postponed so it could be packaged with the private-property rules.
Davis has no dedicated vending permit program yet, staff told the Planning Commission in July. That does not mean vending is unregulated: in 2024, city staff said street food vendors could get a business license and operate within current law, and in 2025 the city reviewed food trailers at a Davis cafe through a use permit process. Many health standards for food vendors fall under Yolo County's environmental health department.
The preliminary draft, released for a July 22 commission workshop, would require a city mobile vending permit that also serves as a business license, with an initial and annual fee to be set by the council. Food vendors would also need a county environmental health permit where one applies. Vending would be allowed only on developed private property, with the owner's signature on the application, and would be barred in residential zones; on private property within 500 feet of a school from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. when school is in session and around graduation ceremonies; and near a permitted certified farmers' market or swap meet during its operating hours. The staff report says the draft also bars vending on vacant or unimproved lots and stand-alone parking lots, and does not currently allow it in mixed-use zones. Portable cooking equipment would have to stay at least 15 feet from permanent structures while operating. Applicants could use an individual taxpayer identification number or a municipal ID instead of a Social Security number, and the draft says those numbers would be kept confidential.
Several limits that staff asked commissioners about are not in the draft: barring vendors from properties that already have a similar or competing business, such as a restaurant (Woodland bars mobile vendors at gas stations); capping the number of vendors (Woodland allows 13); or requiring a food vendor's approved commercial kitchen, called a commissary, to be in Davis (Woodland requires it within city limits). The staff report says food vendors' county permits include approval of a commissary; at the workshop, staff said the requirements depend on the vendor and offered to bring back more detail on Yolo County's rules.
Commissioners welcomed the effort but questioned parts of it. One called limits such as keeping vendors away from the Farmers Market protectionist and cited studies showing street food brings more business to an area; another said requiring a commissary inside Davis would be an undue burden without a public health justification. One commissioner faulted staff for drafting the rules before talking with vendors and asked whether a model ordinance in a 2019 community food and economic development report had been considered; staff said it had not. Staff said they had already held one-on-one conversations with some vendors and had presented to a committee of the city, the Chamber of Commerce and the Davis Downtown Business Association, and planned to contact people who had written to the police chief about the sidewalk ordinance. Staff described the goal as a transparent program with a low barrier to entry.
Staff told commissioners that the state's sidewalk vending law, SB 946, applies to vendors in the public right of way, not to vending on private property. The draft's findings say its rules are directly related to objective health, safety and welfare concerns and no more restrictive than necessary. Vendors and supporters argued at the workshop that some proposed limits, such as distance rules, are aimed at protecting restaurants from competition, which they said state law does not allow as a reason to restrict sidewalk vendors.
Vendors and supporters have pressed the city throughout the year. In February, speakers told the council that street vendors serve late-night customers after many restaurants close, urged the city to work with them, and tied their worries to fears about federal immigration enforcement. On Oct. 6, a vendor who said the family depends on vending income asked the council to slow down, consult vendors and street vending attorneys, and avoid future litigation. A resident who co-wrote the 2019 food and economic development report asked the council to take more time, saying the discussion had centered on brick-and-mortar businesses and that Davis can have both a thriving street food scene and thriving restaurants.