Joliet, IL Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Sidewalk & Mobile Vending (2026)

Section 13-1 governs the sale of food from any 'movable vehicle' on public property within Joliet's corporate limits, and it draws a sharp line between two categories of mobile vendor. A 'movable vehicle' is defined as any motorized truck, van, automobile or motorcycle, or any bicycle, tricycle, wagon or cart, giving the example of ice cream trucks and food push-carts, but the definition expressly excludes food trucks. A 'food truck' gets its own definition: a vehicle-mounted, motorized or trailered food and beverage service establishment that is readily movable without disassembly.

That distinction matters because the two categories need different authorizations. Subsection (b) requires anyone operating a movable vehicle, meaning a pushcart, ice cream truck or similar non-food-truck unit, on public property for direct food sales to hold a vendor business license. Subsection (c) instead sends food trucks to the special event permit process established in Chapter 5, Article V, sections 5-100 through 5-103, which requires proof of county health department compliance, a host location, and caps single-location operation at 12 hours absent a multi-day event authorization.

In practice, a sidewalk ice cream cart or hot dog cart on a Joliet public sidewalk falls under the vendor business license track in section 13-1(b), not the food-truck special event permit, because it is not a vehicle-mounted, readily movable food and beverage establishment as the code defines a food truck.