Newark, OH Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Sidewalk & Mobile Vending (2026)

Chapter 864 of the Newark Code of Ordinances, adopted as Ord. 89-70 on 11-6-89, covers sidewalk and street sales. Section 864.01(a) bars using any sidewalk, street or alley for selling, displaying or exhibiting goods, wares, merchandise, real estate, food and drink or livestock, with four exceptions: a sale under a court order, a cooperative merchant promotion, a sidewalk cafe, and sidewalk sales by businesses in the General Business District.

For food service, the sidewalk cafe exception in (a)(3) is the operative one. The Director of Public Service can authorize a food service establishment to run a sidewalk cafe or similar outdoor eating facility in a manner specified in the permit. The applicant has to show that the cafe operates in conjunction with and contiguous to a regular food service establishment the applicant owns or operates. Before the permit issues, the applicant must hand the Director a certificate from the City Board of Health or its representative saying the sale of food and beverage in the manner contemplated is permissible and covered by all necessary Board of Health licenses and permits. Under (c), these permits are effective from May 1 to August 31 of each year.

The cooperative promotion exception in (a)(2) requires a showing that the permit supports a cooperative effort of local merchants to promote business, and the permit goes to not fewer than ten merchants or an organization representing not fewer than ten. Those permits are effective for not more than seven days. The General Business District exception in (a)(4) needs no permit for businesses occupying structures there that sell on adjoining sidewalks ten feet wide or more, so long as the sale does not interrupt pedestrian flow or create a nuisance or hazard.

Subsection (b) lets the Director stop any permitted use that becomes a hazard or impediment to passage, and nobody can continue after a cease and desist notice from the Director or an authorized agent. Chapter 864 contains no mobile food truck provisions, so a truck or cart selling from a sidewalk or street falls under the general prohibition in (a).