Pismo Beach, CA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Vending Zones (2026)

Section 12.22.080 of the Pismo Beach Municipal Code sets the places where sidewalk vending is off limits, and the list is long. Subsection B.1 confines vendors to actual sidewalks, defined by California Vehicle Code Section 555, and bars vending on any other city property, including a multi-modal path, paved or unpaved park pathway, bicycle path, alley, beach, the City Pier, Pier Plaza, boardwalk adjacent to the City Pier, street, street end or parking lot. Stationary vendors are barred from any residential zone of the city.

Because sidewalks are narrow, subsection B.2 closes sidewalks on these streets: Shell Beach Road from Cliff Avenue to Terrace Avenue; Pomeroy Street and Hinds Avenue, each from Dolliver Street to the Pier Parking lot; Main Street from Dolliver Street to the city beach; Price Street and Dolliver Street, each from Bay Street to Ocean View Avenue; and Cypress Street from Main Street to Ocean View Avenue.

Distance rules follow. Vending is barred within fifty (50) feet of any street intersection, fifteen (15) feet of a fire hydrant or other emergency response equipment or facility, twenty-five (25) feet of a driveway or driveway apron, fifty (50) feet of a transit stop, and one hundred (100) feet of any signalized intersection or in any manner that blocks traffic signal equipment and cabinets. Vendors also stay out of any roadway, median strip or dividing section, and off outdoor areas that are unpaved or unimproved.

Some zones move with events. A five hundred (500)-foot radius around a permitted certified farmers' market is closed during the market's limited operating hours, and the same radius around an area designated for a temporary special permit under Chapter 12.16 is closed for the duration of that permit. Within two hundred fifty (250) feet of a school building or facility, vending is barred an hour before school is in session and an hour before and after dismissal. The same two hundred fifty (250) feet applies around any public picnic area, playground area or playground equipment.

Hours apply citywide under subsection A.6: no vending between 8:00 p.m. on one day and 7:00 a.m. the next day, unless businesses in non-residential zones on the same street are permitted to remain open, in which case vending follows that business's opening and closing hours.