Royal Oak, MI Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Sidewalk & Mobile Vending (2026)

Chapter 526, Peddling and Soliciting, Article I, Sales on Streets, dates to a 1929 ordinance amended in 1963 and sets the baseline rule for any vendor selling on Royal Oak's public streets, ways or sidewalks, including a food cart or truck: § 526-1 makes it unlawful to display, sell or offer for sale any goods, wares or merchandise of any kind on the City's public streets, ways and places, subject to exceptions. Under Subsection A, the City Commission may grant a temporary permit, on application by the Chamber of Commerce or another merchant organization, allowing merchants to display and sell goods on the public sidewalk in front of their own stores, and the Commission can attach conditions to protect pedestrian safety and the general welfare.

Subsection B exempts newsboys selling newspapers. Subsection C is the one that reaches mobile food vending directly: it makes it lawful for venders duly licensed by the City to sell goods from vehicles, so long as they comply with all other City ordinances relative to that selling, meaning a licensed vehicle-based food vendor operates lawfully only within whatever licensing conditions the City attaches. The Royal Oak Code contains no separate food-truck-specific chapter; a mobile food vendor selling from a cart or truck on a public street or sidewalk is governed by this general vending prohibition and its vehicle-sales exception rather than a dedicated ordinance. Section 526-2 separately bars personally soliciting passersby on the street to sell merchandise or services.