Chicopee, MA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Food Truck Permits (2026)

Chicopee Code § 188-17(C) treats a mobile food seller as a hawker or peddler. The ordinance defines a hawker and peddler as a person who goes from place to place in the same town selling or carrying for sale goods, wares or merchandise, on foot or from any animal or vehicle, which is how a truck or cart operator lands under the license requirement. Subsection C(2) names meats, butters, cheese, fish and fresh fruits or vegetables, then adds hot dogs, hamburgers, meat sandwiches and grinders, ice cream, flavored ice, and all other food items and snacks. The only carve-out in that paragraph is for City owned and operated ice cream trucks. Separately, C(1) lets peddlers sell newspapers, religious publications, ice, flowering plants and uncultivated flowers, fruits, nuts and berries without a license.

The City Council issues the license. When it grants one, the Council can attach restrictions and conditions on hours of operation and any others it decides are necessary to protect the citizens of the City of Chicopee, so two trucks can hold different operating hours. An ice cream truck applicant must comply with MGL c. 270, § 25 and 520 CMR 15.00 and must give the City permission to obtain CORI information from the Board of Probation. Under G(1) each person or organization pays a $25 fee to apply for a license under the chapter unless the chapter says otherwise.

Subsection C(6) sets street rules for anything offered for sale. No street or alley can be blocked by merchandise, a two-foot passageway for pedestrians must stay open, merchandise must be placed so it will not endanger passersby or extend into a street or alley, and the sale cannot create a nuisance or a fire hazard. Under C(7) the Police Department makes sufficient inspections to ensure compliance. Licenses cannot be assigned or transferred under G(8), and a licensee must carry the license and show it on demand of a police officer or a customer under G(7).