Santa Barbara County, CA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Food Truck Permits (2026)

Santa Barbara County's Land Use and Development Code treats a food truck as one form of 'incidental food service,' a category of accessory use allowed on agricultural land zoned AG-II when it is tied to an existing agricultural enterprise use that already brings the public onto the premises, such as a campground, educational tour, fishing operation, horseback riding, hunting operation, or small-scale special event permitted under the same Section 35.42.035. Subsection D.4.b.(1) lists food trucks among five categories of incidental food service, alongside prepackaged non-hazardous foods, prepackaged hazardous foods, prepackaged meals delivered by an offsite permitted facility, and catered food, that are exempt from a separate county planning permit provided the operation does not add new structures and follows the use limitations of Subsection D.4.c.

Those limitations require the food service to remain secondary, incidental, and subordinate to the agricultural enterprise, prohibit operating the truck as an independent food business, cap its hours to the hours of the agricultural activity that draws the public, require the operator to arrange solid waste collection under County Code Chapter 17, and require compliance with County Public Health Department food-handling and sanitation rules plus County Fire Department requirements. Winery tasting room food service is carved out and governed instead by the separate wineries standards in Section 35.42.280.

This exemption does not create a general county-wide mobile food vending ordinance; a food truck operating anywhere else in the unincorporated area, such as a public right-of-way or a commercial parking lot with no agricultural tie, falls outside Section 35.42.035 and needs a different permit or a business license review.