Burien, WA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Sidewalk & Mobile Vending (2026)

BMC 5.10.010(8) defines an ice cream vendor as any person, principal or agent, employer or employee, who sells or offers or exposes for sale ice cream products in Burien by going up and down residential or commercial streets or from place to place. Section 5.10.100(3) then limits where that vendor, and any peddler or transient sales representative, can work: no exclusive right to a location in the public streets, no stationary location, and no operating in a congested area where operations might impede or inconvenience the public.

The police officer's good-faith judgment on whether the area is congested or the public impeded or inconvenienced is conclusive, so there is no separate measurement standard to argue. Hours are set in 5.10.100(4)(a): no ice cream vending between 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 a.m. Peddlers and transient sales representatives face a bar between 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 a.m. under subsection (4)(b). A vendor needs a special activity license, since BMC 5.10.030(1)(i) lists ice cream vendors among the activities requiring a license or permit, separate from and in addition to the business license under Chapter 5.05 BMC (5.10.040).

The base fee is $100.00 for a single endorsement (5.10.030(3)), the license year runs August 1st through July 31st (5.10.120), and an employer or principal that fields individual ice cream vendors obtains its own permit and lists the individuals it employs or uses as agents (5.10.100(1)(c)). The sworn application goes to the city clerk and receives a police criminal history background investigation (5.10.100(2)(a)). Street use activities are a separate license category governed by Chapters 12.17 and 12.18 BMC (5.10.030(1)(h)).