Gainesville, FL Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Vending Zones (2026)

Sec. 30-5.38 regulates food trucks as a temporary, non-food-truck-park use; a separate section, Sec. 30-5.13, covers food trucks located inside a dedicated food truck park. Outside a food truck park, a truck may only set up on a lot in a zoning district that allows food trucks as a use by right, or in a planned development (PD) district that allows restaurants or alcoholic beverage establishments as defined in article II of the code.

The number of trucks a property can host scales with its size: the code allows a maximum of two food trucks per half-acre of land area or fraction of a half-acre under common ownership across contiguous lots, so a half-acre lot tops out at two trucks and a full acre at four. Trucks cannot block vehicular or pedestrian circulation, bus stops, or building ingress/egress, and each must keep at least 15 feet of clearance from any fire hydrant. Trucks and their seating areas may not occupy accessible parking spaces, appropriate trash and recycling containers must be provided, and each truck needs an approved portable fire extinguisher rated at least 8 BC. Any generator a truck runs is capped at 60 decibels measured 10 feet away. Operators must hold the required State of Florida licenses through the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, the Department of Health, and the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and must comply with Florida Administrative Code 61C-4.0161 for mobile food dispensing vehicles.

Property owners can exceed the two-per-half-acre cap by obtaining a food truck special event permit, paid at the fee set in Appendix A, which allows a greater truck count for up to two consecutive days, with the site restored to its original condition within four hours after the event and no more than one such permit issued per location every 30 days.