Wilmington, NC Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Food Truck Permits (2026)

Section 18-340(c)(8)i sets Wilmington's mobile food unit standards within the chapter's temporary uses article. Every operator must obtain the annual permit and post it in a visible location on the unit, and the operator must have the property owner's signed approval, available for inspection, for each location the truck operates from. m. Within the Central Business District, additional limits apply: a mobile food unit may stay at a single location no more than five consecutive hours, only one unit may operate on an individual site per day, and no unit may operate on more than two individual sites in one day.

Units must sit at least seventy-five feet from the main entrance of the nearest operating restaurant, reduced to twenty-five feet for food carts under five feet long, and at least five feet from fire hydrants, sidewalks, utility boxes, handicap ramps, and building entrances. Operators must remove their own trash rather than use city receptacles, keep associated equipment within three feet of the unit, and may not use amplified microphones or bullhorns. Under Section 18-340(d), a mobile food unit cannot occupy the same parcel for more than sixty cumulative days in a calendar year without a special use permit.