Santee, CA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Food Truck Permits (2026)

Chapter 10.26 opens with the City Council's findings in Section 10.26.010 that mobile vending poses traffic and safety risks, citing its authority under California Vehicle Code Section 22455 to regulate the time, place and manner of vending from vehicles on the street. Section 10.26.040 splits the licensing requirement in two: subsection A makes it unlawful to engage in mobile food vending or operate a vending vehicle in the City without first procuring a business license under Chapter 4.02, while subsection B separately requires an ice cream truck operator selling only prepackaged ice cream to obtain a regulatory permit under Chapter 4.03 before operating.

Section 10.26.050 layers on a health requirement: every vending vehicle selling foodstuffs must display, in a conspicuous place, a valid certificate to operate issued by the County of San Diego, since the county (not the City) runs the environmental health inspection program. Section 10.26.030 clarifies that vendors must comply with all applicable State and County laws in addition to this chapter, but the chapter is not intended to be enforced against pedestrian food merchants or push-cart and other nonself-propelled vendors, including trailers. A narrow exemption in Section 10.26.080 lets a vendor at a City-approved special event or farmers' market skip the mobile-vending-specific requirements once a business license is obtained, provided the vehicle stays parked for the event's duration and conducts no other business in the City.