Gaithersburg, MD Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Food Truck Permits (2026)

6 of the Gaithersburg City Code governs mobile food vendors as a zoning use, not through a separate health-department-style license. A food truck must park within a standard parking stall, and if it is stored overnight at the owner's home it cannot operate or complete sales from that residence except when catering exclusively for the residents and guests of that lot. City-wide, a mobile food vendor cannot set up within 300 feet of an existing restaurant during that restaurant's normal business hours, though the code carves out exceptions: trucks working a city-approved special event, a truck operated by the same entity as the nearby restaurant, trucks serving breweries, distilleries, or wineries that do not themselves serve food, and any truck that has the written permission of both the nearby business owner and the property owner where it wants to park.

11(D)(5)(g). Only one food truck is allowed per lot unless it is working a city-approved special event. Trucks may advertise on the vehicle itself and may add one sandwich-board sign of up to six square feet, placed within 20 feet of the unit, on a sidewalk that still leaves at least five feet of unimpeded walkway, and removed daily once business stops. Delivery vehicles, in-person sales solicited by the resident, farmers markets, and vendors already holding a separate city special-event or vending permit are exempt from this section entirely.