Chapel Hill, NC Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Food Truck Permits (2026)

Section 10-71 sets the permitting steps a food truck vendor must follow before selling in Chapel Hill. The vendor first obtains an annual privilege license from the town, and, on top of that license, pays an annual regulatory fee assessed to cover the cost of regulating food truck businesses, with the fee amount reviewed and adjusted each year. Vendors who operate only for catering, at special events, or at specialty markets are exempt from the regulatory fee, though they still need the privilege license. Before the town issues or renews the annual license, § 10-71(c) requires the truck to pass a town inspection.

Once issued, the vendor receives a certification sticker that must be placed on the truck near where other permits are displayed, and § 10-71(e) requires the privilege license and the county health permit to be displayed during the truck's hours of operation. Section 10-70(a) separately requires documentation of approval from the health department of the county where the truck's associated commissary restaurant sits, and § 10-72 requires the vendor to comply with all local, county, and state retail sales and food and beverage tax rules.

Under § 10-73, the town manager can suspend or revoke a permit for parking, traffic, litter, or public-safety problems, or temporarily suspend permits during special events downtown.