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

Article XII of Chapter 18 (Secs. 18-496 through 18-526) covers "street and sidewalk vendors," meaning anyone selling food, beverages, or merchandise from a stand fixed at one public location rather than traveling door-to-door. Sec. 18-517 sets minimum siting standards: sidewalk locations need at least 20 feet of paved pedestrian width, street locations need at least 60 feet of paved street width, corner locations must sit at least 50 feet from the intersection curblines and 30 feet from another licensed vendor, and no site may fall within 200 feet of a park, playground, or school, within 150 feet of an active building-permit site that could endanger patrons, adjacent to a bus stop, or anywhere in the Fulton Plaza or Civic Center Addition.

Sec. only, stands cannot be left unattended or stored overnight on the right-of-way, food and beverage vendors must supply their own 20-gallon litter receptacle, cooking is barred beneath trees (only warming is allowed), and a pushcart site is capped at six feet by eight feet while a sidewalk station is capped at six feet by 13 feet, measured with a mat placed on the sidewalk to confirm the footprint. In the downtown business district, defined by the Kumpf Boulevard, Perry Avenue, Interstate 74, and Illinois River boundary in Sec.

18-518, locations are assigned by an annual random drawing held the second Monday in February, and vendors who timely renew keep their assigned spot from year to year. Sec. 18-521 currently sets every pushcart, sidewalk station, downtown, and short-term license fee at $0 per year under Ordinance No. 18358, which the code's editor's note says applies only for the 2026-2027 licensing year before fees revert. Sec. 18-521(e)-(f) still requires a $1,000 performance bond and $300,000/$500,000/$15,000 liability insurance naming the city as coinsured.