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2 ORDINANCE NO. ____
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
CATHEDRAL CITY ESTABLISHING A PILOT PROGRAM FOR
FOOD TRUCK VENDOR PERMITS ON PRIVATE PROPERTY
(“FOOD TRUCK PILOT PROGRAM”)
WHEREAS, pursuant to the authority granted to the City of Cathedral City (“City”) by Article XI, Section 7 of the California Constitution, the City has the police power to regulate the use of land and property within the City in a manner designed to promote public convenience and general prosperity, as well as public health, welfare, and safety; and
WHEREAS, pursuant to California Constitution, Article XI, Section 5 and Cathedral City City Charter Section 100, the City, as a charter city, has plenary authority to make and enforce within its limits all ordinances and regulations in respect to municipal affairs; and
WHEREAS, the City Council adopted regulations concerning the operation of food trucks within the public right-of-way in 2014, located in Chapter 5.82 of the Cathedral City Municipal Code; and
WHEREAS, Chapter 5.82 includes, among other things, operational standards and requirements that vendors obtain a business license and vendor permit through the City and a valid permit or other required approval from the Riverside County of Department of Health; and
WHEREAS, the existing regulations do not regulate the operation of food trucks on private property; and
WHEREAS, multiple food truck operators have expressed an interest in the operation of a food truck on private property; and
WHEREAS, the City Council has held study sessions on July 9, 2025, and September 10, 2025, to review the City’s existing regulations in comparison to other cities in the Coachella Valley in consideration of changes to the City’s regulations and through those study sessions discussed the potential parameters for a pilot program; and WHEREAS, it is the desire of the City Council to support a pilot program allowing the operation of food trucks on commercially or industrially zoned property as an accessory use where there is an established principal use and subject to the provisions of this ordinance; and
WHEREAS, to ensure an orderly rollout of the mobile food facility pilot and to prevent over-concentration while the City evaluates operational, parking, and enforcement impacts, the City Council finds it necessary to limit the number of active pilot permits to ten (10) during the term of the program; and WHEREAS, on ___ the City Council reviewed the ordinance at which time during the hearing members of the public were given an opportunity to testify regarding the Food Truck Pilot Program.
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2 NOW THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CATHEDRAL CITY, CALIFORNIA, DOES HEREBY ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Purpose
The purpose of this ordinance is to establish a pilot program for food truck vendor permits on property zoned Business Park (BP), Commercial Business Park (CBP-2), Commercial Tourist & Recreation (CTR), Mixed Use - Urban (MU-U), Mixed Use - Commercial (MX-C), Neighborhood Business Park (NBP), Planned Community Commercial (PCC), Planned Limited Commercial (PLC), Planned Professional Office (PPO), or Light Industrial (I-1) where the use is an accessory use to an established principal use. The Food Truck Pilot Program shall be temporary, lasting for a period of 18 months, unless otherwise rescinded or extended by City Council. Any vendor permit issued under the Food Truck Pilot Program shall be valid for the earlier date of one year or the cessation of the Food Truck Pilot Program. A limit of ten (10) permits will be available for issuance during the pilot period to promote an equitable, data- driven pilot and to allow meaningful assessment of program metrics (including complaints, calls for service, parking and ADA compliance, and neighborhood compatibility). This uncodified pilot regulates private property only; Chapter 5.82 continues to govern operation in the public right-of-way and SUP-based events.
SECTION 2. Definitions
For the purposes of this ordinance, the definitions in Section 5.82.010 of the Cathedral City Municipal Code shall apply together with the following definitions:
"Food" means items intended primarily for consumption by human beings. "Mobile Food Facility" means any Category 1, 3, 4, or 5 mobile food facility as defined by Riverside County Ordinance No. 580.5 that is equipped or primarily used for the preparation and retail sale of. The inventory of these vehicles need not be necessarily limited to produce, food, or confections.
"Food vendor" means any person, as defined in this chapter, who:
1. Conducts or permits or causes the operation of mobile food facility;
2. Owns, operates, controls, manages or leases Mobile Food Facility; or
3. Contracts with persons to drive and vend from Mobile Food Facility. “Improved Surface” means A paved, striped parking area lawfully developed to serve an established principal use on the parcel. Gravel, dirt, or vacant/unimproved lots are not Improved Surfaces.
"Operator" means any person who drives, operates or vends from a Mobile Food Facility and shall include the driver and assistant on each Mobile Food Facility. "Person" means any natural person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, stockholder and includes, but is not limited to, owners, operators, drivers, lessors and lessees of food trucks.
"Vend" or "vending" means offering food products of any kind for preparation or sale from a Mobile Food Facility as defined in this section and includes the movement or standing of a Mobile Food Facility for the purpose of preparing food for retail sale, or searching for, obtaining or soliciting retail sales of products.
"Vendor's permit" means a permit issued by the city authorizing the holder thereof to engage in the business of food vending.
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2 SECTION 3. Mobile Food Vendors on Private Property
Any person desiring to operate or cause the operation of one or more Mobile Food Facility shall obtain a business license and a vendor license from the City. As a condition precedent to the issuance of a vendor license, the city shall require a background check on the person making the application for a vendor license as well as anyone who will operate the mobile food facility. Notwithstanding the above, no background check shall be required for any applicant for a vendor license in which the mobile food vendor shall solely be operating at an event for which a special use permit has been issued pursuant to Chapter
9.68 of the Cathedral City Municipal Code. In addition, the following shall also apply:
A. The Food Vendor shall have written, notarized, permission from the property owner to park a Mobile Food Facility on private property.
B. Food Vendor shall possess a valid permit, certificate or other required approval from the Riverside County Department of Environmental Health.
C. The Food Vendor shall have a valid Seller’s Permit from the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration.
D. Each Mobile Food Facility shall have a current, valid County of Riverside grade card/decal health inspection sticker affixed to the lower right side of the windshield and a current, valid business license affixed from Cathedral City as well as a copy of their California Department of Tax and Fee Administration Seller’s Permit always displayed.
E. Location/Condition/Appearance of Site.
1. The site must be on a property zoned Business Park (BP), Commercial Business Park (CBP-2), Commercial Tourist & Recreation (CTR), Mixed Use - Urban (MU- U), Mixed Use - Commercial (MX-C), Neighborhood Business Park (NBP), Planned Community Commercial (PCC), Planned Limited Commercial (PLC), Planned Professional Office (PPO), or Light Industrial (I-1) where the use is an accessory use to an established principal use. A Mobile Food Facility shall be parked on an Improved Surface.
2. The site where a Mobile Food Facility is parked shall be maintained in a safe and clean manner at all times.
3. No exterior storage of refuse, equipment or materials associated with food vending.
4. While a Mobile Food Facility is in operation, the food vendor may place temporary site furniture, fixtures, or exterior equipment outside the mobile food facility, such as tables, chairs, benches, stand-up/cocktail tables, picnic tables, tents/canopies/umbrellas, condiment bars, coolers/ice chests, provided that the total area occupied by the food truck does not exceed the lesser of three parking spaces or 600 square feet, including the Mobile Food Facility, and does not block any pedestrian path. No extension cords, cables, or hoses may cross pedestrian routes or drive aisles, and no temporary utility runs may be installed.
5. The Mobile Food Facility shall maintain vehicular and pedestrian circulation and access consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act and all local and state regulations.
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2 6. Any Mobile Food Facility parked out of the public right-of-way to conduct business must have the written consent of the property owner to do so.
F. Litter Control.
1. Any Mobile Food Facility licensed by the County of Riverside as a Category 4 or Category
5 mobile food facility shall provide a minimum of two thirty-two-gallon litter receptacles within fifteen feet of the vehicle. The receptacles will serve both employees and customers.
2. The Mobile Food Facility vendor shall maintain the subject property and adjacent right- of-way free of litter on and within one hundred feet of the vending site.
3. All refuse shall be removed from the vending site and properly disposed of within thirty minutes of the close of vending for the day at that site.
G. Security.
1. The vendor shall install signage indicating that loitering is not permitted and customers may only remain on the lot for up to thirty minutes after receiving their food.
2. The vendor shall enforce the no-loitering rule.
3. The serving or consumption of alcohol shall be prohibited at vending sites.
H. Toilets and Handwashing Facilities. In order for a Mobile Food Facility to remain parked and conducting business in one location longer than one hour, it must be situated within one hundred and fifty feet travel distance of a legally approved and permitted toilet and handwashing facility, or as otherwise approved by the city, to ensure that restroom facilities are available to Mobile Food Facility employees. The Mobile Food Facility operator must have permission of the property owner to use the toilet and handwashing facility.
I. Mobile Food Facilitys operating as part of a special event permitted by the city shall follow the permissions and restrictions of the approved permit.
J. Insurance
1. Food vendor shall maintain a certificate of general liability insurance policy with the City of Cathedral City listed as an additional insured endorsement (minimum $1,000,000 per claim, $2,000,000 aggregate).
K. No person shall vend from a Mobile Food Facility in any parking lot when the following apply:
1.When the Mobile Food Facility is parked within five hundred feet of the nearest property line of any school property, unless that school principal has given written permission to park within such lesser distance. Said limitation shall be in force between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. of any school day; or
2.When the Mobile Food Facility is parked within five hundred feet of any eating and drinking establishment unless the Mobile Food Facility is associated with a special use permit that is active at the time that the Mobile Food Facility is conducting business or where those eating and drinking establishments within 1 3
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2 500 feet have authorized the Mobile Food Facility to park within such lesser distance.
L. Any Mobile Food Facility operated contrary to the provisions of this ordinance is declared to be unlawful and a public nuisance and may result in the revocation of a food vendor permit.
M. The provisions of this ordinance shall not apply to Mobile Food Facility servicing construction sites.
N. Hours of Operation. Mobile Food Facility may only be operated between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. except as may otherwise be set through a special event permit.
O. Amplified Sound Prohibited. Mobile food facilities shall not use any sound-amplifying equipment as defined in CCMC Chapter 5.68 and shall comply with CCMC §
11.96.040 (sound plainly audible from a motor vehicle at fifty feet or beyond the property line is prohibited). City-permitted special events remain subject to their event permit conditions.
SECTION 4. California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)
Adoption of this ordinance is exempt from the requirements of the CEQA and is not considered a project under Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000) of the California Public Resources Code pursuant to Government Code Sections 65252.21(j) and 66411.7(n).
SECTION 5. Severability
If any chapter, sections, subsections, subdivisions, sentences, clauses, phrases, or portion of this ordinance, is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by the decision of any court of competent jurisdiction, such decision will not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this ordinance. The City Council hereby declares that it would have adopted this ordinance, and each chapter, sections, subsections, subdivisions, sentences, clauses, phrases, or portion thereof, irrespective of the fact that any one or more sections, subsections, subdivisions, sentences, clauses, phrases, or portions thereof be declared invalid or unconstitutional.
SECTION 6. Publication
The City Clerk is directed to publish this ordinance in a manner required by law.
SECTION 7. Effective Date
This ordinance shall become effective upon the 30th day after final adoption.
SECTION 8. Certification
The foregoing Ordinance was approved and adopted at a meeting of the City Council held on the ____ day of _____________, 2025, by the following vote:
Ayes:
Noes:
Abstain:
Absent:
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2 ___________________________
Nancy Ross, Mayor
ATTEST:
____________________________
Tracey Hermosillo, City Clerk
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
____________________________
Eric S. Vail, City Attorney