Lacey, WA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Vending Zones (2026)

LMC 16.70.050(A) says retail stands may only be located in six places: all commercial zones; all light industrial zones; the community office zone; mixed high density corridor and mixed moderate density corridor; along arterials and collectors at key multimodal intersections in pocket parks or pedestrian plazas as approved by the approving authority based on findings that it will enhance the local pedestrian experience; and open space institutional zones. LMC 16.70.020(J) makes a food vehicle a retail stand, so the list governs food trucks in the City of Lacey.

Subsection B requires locations compatible with the pedestrian and vehicular nature of the zone, the use of the right-of-way as a public thoroughfare, and the use of parking lots as public parking areas, and bars sites that attract or serve vehicular traffic. Only temporary/seasonal retail stands can be located to attract and serve vehicle traffic (subsection C). In judging a location, LMC 16.70.050(D) weighs sidewalk, plaza or parking lot width, nearby street furniture, bus stops and truck loading areas, traffic patterns, and the number of retail stand sites already in the area.

LMC 16.70.060 adds specific limits. A stand cannot sit within one hundred feet of, or fronting, a business that specializes in an item the stand sells unless the applicant owns that business or has written consent; the distance is measured along the route of access, and it can be reduced or waived at a key pedestrian intersection in a designated pedestrian plaza. A stand cannot obstruct pedestrian or vehicular traffic, is limited to its approved locations, and cannot sit within eight feet of an abutting property. Only one retail stand site is approved for each plaza, pocket park or parking lot unless the approving authority finds more would fit the chapter's intent. In a parking lot the stand cannot block entrances, exits or fire exit doors. On the street itself, LMC 16.70.020(C) lets the director of public works designate a food vehicle zone.