New Berlin, WI Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Food Truck Permits (2026)

New Berlin Code of Ordinances § 152-5 defines a 'mobile vendor' as a person offering goods or services for sale to the public without a permanently built structure but from a self-contained static structure such as a vehicle, and the ordinance says outright that food trucks are considered mobile vendors. Under § 152-5 A, no direct seller, including a mobile vendor, may operate in the City without a license, and the direct sellers permit plus the separate mobile retail license (obtained from the State of Wisconsin or another jurisdiction under § 152-5 D(2)) must both be posted on the truck for public view.

Applicants file with the City Clerk, pass a background check through the city's approved vendor, and pay a processing fee plus an annual license fee set by the Common Council; an additional fee applies for vendors operating on City property outside a City-run event. (with an exemption for City-run events like the Fourth of July Festival), cannot draw power from an adjacent building, must be self-contained, and must provide their own trash receptacle and haul out all waste, with no organic waste dumped into the sanitary sewer.

Trucks near an existing restaurant or business selling food prepared on site must stay at least 150 feet back from that lot's line, and no more than two mobile vendors may operate on the same private property at once absent a special event permit. The license runs one year from issuance and requires reapplication to renew.