ESCONDIDO — The City Council adopted an ordinance last week regulating sidewalk vending in the city, which will take effect early next year after the city completes outreach to vendors and finalizes details, such as permit costs.
Escondido officials began pursuing a sidewalk vending ordinance in 2022, after a former council member asked staff to develop regulations in response to local complaints. A draft ordinance was presented to the Economic Development Subcommittee in 2023, but it was stalled while the city prioritized other matters.
Efforts resumed in 2025, with another draft ordinance presented to the subcommittee in January. At a Wednesday meeting, the City Council reviewed that ordinance and approved it in a 3-2 vote, with council members Joe Garcia and Consuelo Martinez opposed.
The new ordinance establishes a sidewalk vendor permit program. In order to obtain a permit, vendors must have a state seller’s permit, business license, and, if selling food, a valid county health permit and food handler’s or manager’s food safety card.
City leaders said the cost of the sidewalk vendor permit still needs to be finalized this year as part of the city’s larger fee schedule. The ordinance does not require vendors to carry insurance, making it less strict than that of neighboring cities.
“On one hand, you’ve got people who just want street vending banned entirely, and on the other hand, there’s a decent amount of people who think it should just be the Wild West, but I think that this lands kind of in the sweet spot,” said Mayor Dane White. “If you compare this proposed ordinance to some of the other cities, I think we’re quite a bit less restrictive, in particular with the insurance part of that.”
Enforcement of the ordinance will not start until early 2027. Until then, city staff will engage with and educate vendors on the regulations, so there are no surprises when it goes into effect.
If the city identifies a major issue with a part of the ordinance during these discussions, the ordinance can be brought back to the council for adjustments, staff said.
“So far we only estimate about 15 vendors that are operating in the city right now, but because there’s no permits for the vendors, we don’t have an official number,” said Director of Economic Development Jennifer Schoenek.
White and city staff said the Economic Development Subcommittee meeting on the ordinance was well-attended, and that the city has been able to engage with vendors and their representatives about the proposed ordinance.
However, Martinez expressed concerns that the city had not received sufficient input from vendors on the proposed rules. She argued that the ordinance should only be approved as a draft and then come back for a final vote at a later date, after city staff have engaged more with vendors and ironed out additional details.
“I figured we would have community engagement sessions outside of the subcommittee structure to get input from sidewalk vendors and just, you know, the residents and business community, because a lot of times, it’s hard to know about these subcommittee meetings and people don’t know that they can attend them,” Martinez said.
In addition to a business license and vendor permit, the ordinance will require each sidewalk vendor to have a city-issued ID to verify that the person selling is part of a permitted and licensed sidewalk vending business.
City staff said this is necessary because, unlike brick-and-mortar businesses, sidewalk vendors don’t have a stationary location.
“The sales permit is going to have a photograph, and it’s going to be based on the application of the vendor. Part of that was to ensure that when the code compliance officer is talking to somebody, they know who they’re talking to, and that the citation can properly identify the person that is potentially in violation,” said City Attorney Michael McGuinness
The council had a lengthy discussion about this part of the ordinance. Martinez said the requirement for an additional ID appeared to single out sidewalk vendors, and asked to remove it from the ordinance, but did not have the support of the council majority.
“It seems like there is kind of an underlying assumption that there’s going to be dishonest business owners, and so we have to prove they are who they are. I don’t think that that’s the case, and we don’t ask that for other businesses,” Martinez said.
She also questioned whether vendor businesses with multiple employees would need to obtain a city vendor ID for each employee.
City staff said that if they encounter multiple situations in which vendors have several employees, they will determine the best way to ensure each employee has a vendor ID.
Councilmember Christian Garcia said that if vendors have these IDs on hand, it’s a streamlined way for the city to verify they’re permitted in the system. It also prevents city code enforcement officials from having to ask for a government-issued ID, which could cause fear for vendors who may be undocumented.
“I just don’t understand how we would enforce it if there’s no way to have identification. I mean, who are we providing the violation to? Who are we speaking with? And I would rather have something that they have on hand as opposed to asking for another type of ID or start interrogating,” Garcia said.
Ordinance regulations
Cities that adopt their own regulations for sidewalk vending must comply with the 2018 state Safe Sidewalk Vending Act, which was adopted to promote and support sidewalk vending in low-income and immigrant communities.
Cities are allowed to regulate the time, place and manner in which vendors operate, including requirements to maintain proper sanitation and comply with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. However, they cannot restrict vendors to certain parts of the public right-of-way unless it relates to objective health and safety concerns.
Escondido’s ordinance prohibits sidewalk vendors from selling:
- To individuals in moving cars,
- In areas that block pedestrian or vehicle access or obstruct traffic signals or signage,
- In areas that inhibit access to entry points for public facilities,
- On painted traffic islands or medians,
- On bike paths,
- Within 18 inches of the curb edge,
- Within 50 feet of another sidewalk vendor,
- Within 50 feet of a bus stop.
Vendors also cannot be within 100 feet of the entrance to a fire station, police department, hospital, or an event that has been issued a special event or temporary use permit by the city, such as a farmers market or street fair.
Originally, staff proposed prohibiting vendors within 500 feet of a school. The City Council voted to reduce the distance to 100 feet, with the requirement that no school entrances be blocked.
Vendors may operate in recreational areas, such as parks, only during their hours of operation, along sidewalks and pedestrian paths.
The City Council also changed the timeframe within which roaming sidewalk vendors can operate in residential areas. Instead of 8 a.m. to sunset, the council set a timeframe of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
When it comes to equipment, vendors must maintain at least four feet of open space on the sidewalk. All food and merchandise must be at least 28 inches off the ground, and equipment cannot be left unattended.
Sidewalk vendors also cannot operate along super prime arterial, prime arterial, super major, and major roads, defined as multi-lane thoroughfares where curbside parking is prohibited. Some examples would be Valley Center Road north of Midway, Valley Parkway from Auto Parkway to Tulip Street, and Center City Parkway at Mission Avenue.
The ordinance also sets a schedule of fines for violations, starting with a warning for the first violation. For vendors with a permit, fines for each subsequent violation would climb to $100, $200, and $500. Fines are much higher for vendors without a permit, starting at $250 for the first violation, followed by $500 and $1,000.
Vendors also have the right to appeal a citation or a permit denial and to go through a hearing process with the city. If a vendor cannot afford to pay a citation fine, the city manager’s office can make an ability-to-pay determination and waive a portion of the fine.
“I want to say good job on … the fine schedule, because we did discuss at the subcommittee that it seemed very steep, but you came up with just a really good ability for them to be able to pay or a way around it by providing the hearings,” said Councilmember Judy Fitzgerald.
No residents provided public comment about the proposed ordinance at the City Council meeting.
