Yes, bylaw officers are allowed to shut down lemonade stands

In a stunning display of policing prowess, Texas law enforcement officials crushed an illicit lemonade-peddling going by the alias “The Green Girls.”

The ring of two – run by seven-year-old Zoe Green and her eight-year-old sister, Andria – was found street-side near their last known address in Overton, Texas, offering ice cold lemonade for the bargain barrel price of 50 cents and kettle corn for a dollar (purchase both together and it’s just a dollar – what’s the angle here, Green Girls?).

Sources close to the ring say the preteen culprits were trying to raise $105, to take their dad to a water park for Father’s Day. But health and safety issues under the auspice of the Texas Baker’s Bill – which prohibits the sale of foods requiring time of temperature control to prevent spoilage without an inspection and permit – led police to shut the stand down.

Not in this town, girls.

But then again, what if the lemonade-bootlegging Green girls were in fact just trying to raise the cash for their father’s day gift? What if this was an otherwise innocent experiment in elementary entrepreneurial-ism?

Well, in that case, maybe the Overton takedown was an awkward display of heavy-handed justice. Zoe and Andria aren’t the first to kids to watch their first leg of entrepreneurial exploits dampened by overzealous authorities or cranky neighbours.

Read more: Texas police demand permit as they shut down girls’ lemonade stand

In 2010, 12-year-olds Alex Pedersen and Mackenzie Burke Sikorra, set up a lemonade and popcorn selling stand in a Port Coquitlam, B.C. park to raise funds to get new uniforms for Sikorra’s soccer team. Bylaw officers promptly shut it down.

“No one’s allowed to sell things in a city park,” the city’s bylaw services manager told Coquitlam Now. “If we allowed this … the next thing we would know, we would have two hot dog carts at the dog park and we would have two ice cream carts at the dog park.”

In 2013 in Oshawa, Ont., a cranky, unidentified women scolded nine-year-old Corbin Potter for shouting at passersby to advertise his lemonade stand he was running with his sisters Danika, eight, and Brigit, 10.

After Potter, who has autism, didn’t accept the woman’s offer to buy out the stand – set up to raise money for SickKids Hospital – for $5, she called the police who tried to shut the family-run stand down.

Corbin and co. saw an outpouring of support, including Oshawa Mayor John Henry.

“Even if we had been contacted, it’s a lemonade stand. My concern is how can something as traditional as a lemonade stand get to the point of a 911 call?” Henry told the Toronto Sun.

He pointed out that although the city of Oshawa requires vendor permits for food and drink stands, those permits typically applies to adults, not children.

Bylaws apply to ‘kidpreneurs’ too

Bylaws and permits like these are enforced on a case-to-case basis across Canada. Although one might assume kids would be universally exempt from getting a permit, especially when funds raised from side-street bake sales or lemonade stands are often low, bylaw officers have a right to enforce the law.

One element kidpreneurs – or their parents – will have to consider is where they’re setting up their stand.

In their neighbourhood might be the best option. In Toronto, for example, city officials told Yahoo Canada there is no bylaw with respect lemonade stands on city sidewalks or driveways and no permits needed for bake sales.

In city parks on the other hand: “Unless authorized by permit, no person shall, while in a park, sell or offer or display for sale: (1) Any food, drink or refreshment; (2) Any goods, wares, merchandise or articles, including promotional material, souvenirs and novelties; or (3) Any art, skill, service or work.”

According to Toronto park bylaws, you also can’t solicit or raise funds for businesses without a permit.

In Ottawa, a Refreshment Stand License is required for any temporary structure from which refreshments are cooked, carried or offered for sale to the general public. The license ranges from $200 to $700.

Meanwhile, the City of Calgary licenses food-related businesses, dependent on where they’re operating. In all cases, the owner of the business must be operating from a location that is approved and has consent from the landowner.

“If the activity is not a true ‘business’ such as children setting up a lemonade stand outside of their house, the city would not likely license them,” Jondrea De Ruyter, spokesperson for the City of Calgary’s animal and bylaw services wing told Yahoo Canada in an email. “We look at the ‘spirit’ of the bylaw and what it intends on regulating as opposed to the ‘letter of the law’ on how the definition may capture all types of activity.”

Several other municipal governments across the country failed to respond by press time but the moral of the story is: connect with your city before the kids start squeezing those lemons.

Luckily for Overton’s illicit lemonade stand, the police struck an agreement with the Green girls – they can keep the lemonade stand provided they weren’t pocketing the profits from the transactions. Authorities – 1, kidpreneurs – 0.