Council Bluffs, IA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Sidewalk & Mobile Vending (2026)

CBMC 3.58.080 sets the operating rules for a mobile food vendor selling from the public right-of-way. A vendor cannot sell within 200 feet of a permanent restaurant's public entrance while that restaurant is open for food service, unless every such restaurant within that radius gives written consent. The selling vehicle can only park where a motor vehicle is already authorized to park by law, signage or city permit, and it cannot park at a diagonal space or in a space adjacent to a street-intersection corner.

At a metered space, the vendor must pay the posted meter rate, and where the meter carries a two-hour limit, the vendor may still occupy that space for up to four consecutive hours. Vehicles cannot exceed 40 feet in length and 96 inches in width; a trailer or other towed equipment cannot exceed 96 inches in width, and the combined length of vehicle and trailer cannot exceed 60 feet, though the director can waive those dimensions, with the Public Works Right-of-Way Division also signing off if the site is in city right-of-way.

Selling hours run 6:00 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. seven days a week, though the chief of police can further restrict hours for public safety. Vendors must display their business name, provide trash receptacles, and clean litter within twenty feet of the site before leaving, and cannot place any freestanding sign, table, chair, umbrella or generator on city property beyond one identification or menu sign and one non-seating table next to the unit. A city officer can order a vendor to move, and tow the vehicle, if it obstructs traffic or endangers public safety.