Gulfport, MS Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Food Truck Permits (2026)

Appendix A, Sec. IV(A)(9) defines a mobile food vendor as one selling prepared food from a motor vehicle equipped for preparation and sale, and folds the operating rules into the zoning code instead of a dedicated business-license chapter. Routine, short-duration sales are allowed by right in the listed commercial and industrial districts and at T-5/T-6 SmartCode transect zones without a special permit, but vendors must vacate the premises once all patrons have been served, and extended parking on a site is strictly prohibited outside that model.

To park longer, for example serving a festival or commercial special event, the vendor must apply to the Office of Urban Development for a temporary Certificate of Zoning Compliance, which is capped at three consecutive days and no more than nine days total within any one-year period, and requires a detailed site plan showing the vendor is not blocking traffic aisles or reducing required on-site parking. The section also cross-references the city's general permit and license requirements, meaning a mobile food operator still needs whatever business license or health permit the city otherwise requires; the zoning provision governs where and how long the truck may sit, not those separate approvals.

Civic activities are carved out of the extended-parking limits entirely. Because this sits in the zoning appendix, enforcement runs through the Office of Urban Development and the building official rather than the police department, and a vendor operating outside these terms is treated as a zoning violation subject to the code's general zoning enforcement remedies rather than a peddler's-license revocation.