Canton, OH Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Vending Zones (2026)

Section 1148.12(a)(1)C of the Canton Zoning Code opens mobile food vending to every zoning district in the city with one exception: it is not permitted at all in Residential Zoning Districts R1 through R5. That baseline is tightened further downtown. Within the B5 Central Business Zoning District that makes up the Downtown Canton Special Improvement District (SID), 1148.12(a)(1)E confines street and right-of-way vending to four settings: alongside a City-sanctioned or community special event in a pre-approved area, Central Plaza, the stretch of Centennial Plaza along 4th Street NW between Market Avenue N and Cleveland Avenue NW, and the stretch of Centennial Plaza along 3rd Street NW between the same two cross streets.

Even inside those approved plazas, 1148.12(a)(1)F caps density: no more than two vendors in Central Plaza North, two in Central Plaza South, six along the 4th Street NW Centennial Plaza stretch and six along the 3rd Street NW stretch, and 1148.12(a)(1)G bars parking on the fountain areas of Central Plaza or within the Centennial Plaza event lawn. Layered on top of the district and plaza rules, 1148.12(a)(2)F sets citywide siting buffers that apply wherever vending is otherwise allowed: no operating within 50 feet of a residence, 200 feet of a fixed food-service business during its operating hours, 50 feet of a gas station, 1,000 feet of a school between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on school days, or 5 feet of another mobile food unit.