Council Bluffs, IA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Vending Zones (2026)

CBMC 3.58.080 also controls where, not just how, a mobile food vendor can sell. Selling from city park property requires the specific written consent of the Parks and Recreation director, and even with consent the vendor is confined to hard-surfaced areas of the park, excluding any roadway or parking lot drive aisle, and to the park's own posted hours of operation. Selling from school property requires the written consent of an authorized school representative, and that consent must be presented at the time the vendor applies for a license, not afterward.

A vendor also cannot sell inside an area authorized for a street show, festival, parade or block party, or within 200 feet of that area's boundary, unless the vendor holds the event permittee's written consent and submitted it with the license application. Beyond these baseline zones, CBMC 3.58.110 lets the city council create special districts with modified vending rules by resolution, at the request of a registered neighborhood association or a business improvement district, if the petitioner documents the district's boundaries, the proposed special rules, a governing-body resolution approving them, evidence that local vendors were consulted, and a public health or safety reason for the change; special rules cannot ban vending outright in the district, only modify the general CBMC 3.58.080 rules.

CBMC 3.58.120 requires the mayor or director to convene public works, police, a council member and a vendor-industry representative for an annual review of how the general and any special vending rules are working.