Brockton, MA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Vending Zones (2026)

The zoning ordinance treats food trucks as a listed permitted use in specific districts, each carrying the same location restrictions. In the R-1 single-family zone, Section 27-25 lists food trucks among principal permitted uses but caps them at not more than two days in a calendar year on a residential lot; the identical two-day cap carries into the R-2 (Section 27-26) and R-3 (Section 27-27) residential zones. In the C-1 neighborhood commercial zone, Section 27-28 permits food trucks as a principal use but bars them from operating on public streets and from operating within 250 feet of the entrance of a licensed restaurant in the city, unless the food truck operator gets written permission from that restaurant's owner.

The identical clause repeats verbatim in the C-2 general commercial zone (Section 27-29) and in the professional/limited-business office zone, meaning the 250-foot buffer and public-street ban apply citywide across every zone where food trucks are a listed use, not just in one district. This zoning framework governs where a truck may physically set up; it operates alongside, not instead of, the board of health's Article XVII mobile food vendor permit that governs whether a truck may operate at all. A truck compliant with its board of health permit can still be out of compliance if it parks on a public street or inside another restaurant's 250-foot buffer without that owner's written sign-off.