Cedar Rapids, IA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Sidewalk & Mobile Vending (2026)

Section 42A.11 splits sidewalk placement into three specific bans. Subsection (d) keeps food stands and food carts at least 5 feet from sidewalk ramps. Subsection (e) is absolute for the largest units: no food truck shall locate upon a sidewalk at all, unlike food carts and stands, which the Chapter allows on hard surfaces elsewhere in the right-of-way. Subsection (f) keeps any food truck at least 35 feet from an intersection, measured from the back of the sidewalk or the end of the curb radius, and away from travel lanes, requiring it instead to park in a designated parking lane or space.

Those sidewalk-specific bans sit alongside the general right-of-way rule in § 42A.10(b), which requires a mobile food vendor to leave at least six feet of unobstructed passage on a public or private sidewalk, and which keeps vendors three feet from a fire hydrant and ten feet from a building's entrance or exit door. Sales activity is confined to the sidewalk side of the unit under § 42A.11(g), and vendors cannot place tables, chairs, crates, or other seating furniture in the right-of-way under § 42A.11(j); only one sandwich-board sign, no larger than six square feet, is allowed within five feet of the unit under § 42A.11(k). Vendors also cannot block sidewalk ramps for visibility or block a protected bike lane, under § 42A.11(m) and (n).