Richland, WA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Food Truck Permits (2026)

The City of Richland, Washington defines a portable food vendor at RMC § 23.06.780 as the vending of food and/or beverages from a movable cart-type stand located on the same lot as, and in conjunction with, a permitted use; the stand cannot be self-propelled, must serve only walk-up customers, and cannot be stored outdoors when not open for business. Wherever the zoning code permits a portable food vendor, RMC § 23.42.185 sets the operating standards: only food and beverages may be sold, with no other retail sales allowed, and no outdoor storage of pushcarts or other vending equipment is permitted at any time.

Vending hours run from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. only. Vendors must comply with all local and state public health and safety regulations, and must operate so as to avoid creating congestion on public streets or sidewalks; if operating on a public sidewalk, the vendor must preserve at least four feet of net passable sidewalk width for pedestrians and must never place a pushcart or other equipment within a public street itself. Every portable food vendor must also provide a waste receptacle at all times.

Because the definition ties the use to a cart on a lot with an existing permitted use rather than a self-propelled truck operating city-wide, a motorized food truck seeking to vend on public rights-of-way or across multiple sites falls outside this specific chapter and would need to work through the applicable zoning district's permitted-use list and Richland's general business license requirements under RMC Title 5 before setting up.