Newport News, VA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Food Truck Permits (2026)

City Code § 45-537 governs food trucks operating on private property when they are not part of a permitted special event. Before setting up, a vendor must obtain a food truck vendor permit from the department of planning; the application under subsection (1) requires the applicant's name and home and business addresses and phone number, a description of the food and beverage to be sold, a valid health permit from the Virginia Department of Health, and a valid fire inspection report from the fire marshal, backed by an annual $150 fee.

That permit is personal to the vendor: subsection (1)e bars leasing, selling or otherwise transferring it. Beyond the permit itself, the vendor needs the property owner's written permission on hand in the truck (subsection 2), a current Newport News business license with a decal displayed on the vehicle's left side (subsection 4), and DMV tags and general liability insurance (subsection 5). Subsections (7) and (8) restrict where a permitted truck can operate at all: vending is prohibited on unimproved or vacant property with no structure on it, and on any property used solely as a parking lot, so a truck cannot simply park on an empty lot or in a stand-alone parking facility, it needs to be accessory to an operating business on improved property.

Other operating rules round out the section: the truck must leave when the host business closes for the day after clearing its trash (subsection 6), it cannot block drive aisles, sidewalks or fire lanes (subsection 10), background music cannot carry past the property line or 100 feet, whichever is less (subsection 12), and lighting must be dark-skies compliant (subsection 13). A separate, city-run street vendor program under Chapter 38, Article VII covers trucks that vend from public rights-of-way in the designated downtown and Oakland Industrial Park vendor districts, with its own permits and a class 2 misdemeanor penalty under § 38-228; that program is distinct from the private-property permit in § 45-537.