Corpus Christi, TX Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Vending Zones (2026)

Sec. 38-18(5) flatly bars operating a mobile food unit on any residentially zoned property. Sec. 38-20, governing street vending, narrows that further: paragraph (2) permits mobile food vending on residential streets only where those streets are designated in the Corpus Christi Urban Transportation Plan and are located in residential zones under the Corpus Christi Zoning Ordinance. Sec. 38-20(4) and (5) set 500-foot buffers, from any public or private school while in session (plus 30 minutes before and after) and from any hospital, where vending is prohibited outright, and paragraph (8) bars vending or parking within 75 feet of a street intersection.

On sidewalks, Sec. 38-19(b) confines licensed vending to the bayfront seawall sidewalk or areas the city manager designates in a pilot program, and paragraph (9) layers on additional distance rules there: 75 feet from another vendor, 300 feet from a permanent concession, 25 feet from a street intersection, 300 feet from an authorized festival or special event, and 50 feet from a building entrance. Sec. 38-21 separately governs park and beach vending, requiring the parks and recreation director to designate specific vendor sites within a park or beach, factoring in the primary use of the location, traffic and pedestrian congestion, parking, and any existing permanent concessions, with Gulf of Mexico beach vending additionally governed by chapter 10.