Rapid City, SD Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Food Truck Permits (2026)

212, added by Ordinance 6250 in 2018, sets the operating rules for food trucks and other mobile food vending establishments citywide. Subsection A requires every vendor to hold continuous South Dakota Department of Health licensure and to operate only on private or public property with the property owner's consent, providing proof of that consent to the city on request; vending is allowed as an accessory use on commercial or industrial parcels, on city property including parks, on construction sites, in residential districts tied to an approved special event, or as the Common Council otherwise authorizes.

Vendors must keep the area around the truck clean, provide at least one 13-gallon trash bin and one 13-gallon recycling bin anchored upright for public use, and remove all litter their operation generates at their own expense; umbrellas and canopies have to stay at least 7 feet above ground and can't protrude into the right-of-way. Subsection B prohibits vending in the public right-of-way, including streets, alleys, sidewalks and on-street parking, except at an approved special event that closes the right-of-way, or with Common Council approval; it also bars operating within 300 feet of an event in the Central Business District without the event sponsor's written permission, vending in a city park without Parks and Recreation permission, blocking pedestrian or ADA access, using signage beyond what's affixed to the truck plus two additional banners within 100 feet, and playing amplified sound to attract attention. 010.