Oyster Bay, NY Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Sidewalk & Mobile Vending (2026)

Section 173-4, in Chapter 173's general peddling and soliciting article, is the Town's baseline rule for anyone vending, including food vendors, from a public sidewalk or street. It denies any peddler or solicitor 'any exclusive right to any location in any street or on any public property' and bars occupying 'any stationary location' there, meaning a sidewalk vendor cannot claim a fixed spot as if it were a leased stall. The section also forbids peddling or soliciting 'in any congested place or area when or where such activity may impede or inconvenience the public or add to the congestion of such place or area,' and makes the on-scene judgment of 'any peace officer or police officer, exercised in good faith,' conclusive on whether a location is congested or the public is being inconvenienced.

That standard gives officers broad discretion to move a sidewalk vendor along without a numeric distance test. for the purpose of selling and making immediate delivery,' so a food cart or table set up on a Town sidewalk falls within it. Because Article I's own penalty section, former § 173-9, was repealed by Local Law No. 4-2023, a § 173-4 violation is now punished under the Town Code's general penalty clause, § 1-13, added in 1994, rather than a peddling-specific fine schedule.