Special Business Licenses and Fees

What is a special business license?

A special business may require additional forms and a longer review process before a City business license can be issued.


If you are interested in operating a Taxicab business, an Adult-Use business, a pawnshop, or if you have any questions about additional business types, please contact the City. Liquor licenses are issued by the Washington State Liquor Control Board.


For more information on special business types, see the business license chapters of the Snohomish Municipal Code in Title 5.


Mobile Food Vendor

A mobile food vendor is defined as a business that, as its principal function, sells or otherwise dispenses prepared food and non-alcoholic beverages to the general public from a licensed motor vehicle that is not permanently affixed to real property. 

The term excludes food delivery vehicles and vehicles that dispense food and move from place to place and are stationary for no more than 15 minutes at a time, such as ice cream trucks. The term also excludes food trucks and similar concession vehicles that are licensed by the City under a special event permit.

Please submit this form to request a mobile food vendor permit. City staff will conduct an initial review of your request within 2 weeks of submittal.


Solicitor/Canvasser

A Solicitor or Canvasser is any individual who travels in any manner from place to place, house to house, or street to street taking or soliciting orders for sales of goods, wares and merchandise, and personal property for present or future delivery or for services to be performed presently or in the future, whether or not a sample of such goods, merchandise, or personal property is carried or exposed to prospective customers, and whether or not advance payments on such proposed sales are collected or not. It shall include any person or party who hires, leases, uses, or occupies any building, tent, or other structure or place within the City of Snohomish for the sole purpose of exhibiting samples and taking orders for present or future delivery of goods or services. Ice cream trucks are subject to the Solicitor/Canvasser business license requirements not Mobile Food Vendor.


What is Required of Solicitors? 

EACH individual Solicitor/Canvasser must submit the following:

  • Apply for a State UBI# at 1-800-451-7985 or at dor.wa.gov
  • $44.25 (City Resident) OR $54.25 (Non-Resident) non-refundable fee.
  • Solicitor/Canvasser Application
  • Authorization form to release information and conduct a background check
  • A 2-inch by 3-inch color photo of the applicant's head and shoulders taken within the last 60 days
  • Fingerprint card from a private fingerprinting service.
  • $1,000 surety bond or a cash bond conditioned upon the making of final delivery of the goods and merchandise ordered or services to be performed. Bond shall be in effect for 90 days after the expiration of the license. (Multiple solicitors may be covered under one insurance bond in an amount equal to $1,000 per solicitor, i.e. $5,000 for five solicitors).

For more details, please review the Solicitor/Canvasser Instructions for Applicants.


Just handing out flyers?

If your business would like to distribute flyers without actively engaging Snohomish citizens in an attempt to generate orders for your company, please review Snohomish Municipal Code Chapter 8.20, Uniform Litter Control Code, regarding commercial and non-commercial handbills.