Smyrna, GA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Sidewalk & Mobile Vending (2026)

Article VIII of Chapter 22 (Ord. No. 2013-02, 2-18-13) governs mobile food vendors, and its application form lists the vendor type as a street vending unit or a sidewalk vending unit. Section 22-300 makes it unlawful to sell or offer food from a commissary, mobile retail food establishment, pushcart or temporary food establishment without a license, except at city-sponsored events. The application goes to the community development director or designee and needs the vendor and owner contacts, the make, model and plate of the unit, a copy of an approved permit from the Cobb County Health Department or the Georgia Department of Agriculture, operating locations and times, and signatures from property owners consenting to use of their property.

Section 22-301 then sets the operating rules. Except for ice cream trucks or pushcarts, no vendor may conduct business in the public right-of-way, and no vendor may operate on private property without the owner's prior consent. Vendors are allowed only in nonresidential districts where no red zone (a zone Mayor and Council can establish by majority vote) exists, with residential variances for neighborhood events available from the community development director. A vendor cannot stand within 15 feet of a street intersection or pedestrian crosswalk or ten feet of any driveway.

It must keep 200 feet from any building housing an established licensed eating and drinking establishment, measured from the serving window to the nearest property line, unless it has signed consent from every affected establishment; that spacing does not apply to vendors invited to city events in the Smyrna Market Village or Village Green. Other requirements include a $1,000,000.00 liability policy naming the city as additional insured with 30 days' notice of cancellation, food and non-alcoholic beverages only, no drive-through service, and a trash receptacle within ten feet of the unit.

Section 22-43 separately requires a temporary sales certificate for selling goods from a truck, tent or temporary location at sites approved by Mayor and Council.