Gaithersburg, MD Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Vending Zones (2026)

6(E) is Gaithersburg's core zoning rule on where a food truck can set up. The default rule bars a mobile food vendor from operating within 300 feet of an existing restaurant while that restaurant is open for its normal business hours, protecting brick-and-mortar restaurants from a truck parking just outside their door during peak service. The code carves out six exceptions: trucks operating as part of a city-approved special event; a truck run by the same entity that owns the nearby restaurant; trucks at breweries, distilleries or wineries that do not themselves serve food; and trucks that have obtained prior written permission both from the property owner where the truck will park and from the owner of the nearby restaurant property, which lets a restaurant voluntarily waive the 300-foot buffer for a particular vendor.

The CBD Olde Towne Special District is walled off entirely: food trucks are prohibited there except under the special-event, common-ownership, or brewery/winery/distillery exceptions. Even where a truck is otherwise allowed, no more than one food truck may operate per lot at a time, again except during a city-approved special event. 6(D) applies the same 300-foot buffer to mobile vendors selling non-food goods or services near a matching brick-and-mortar business, with similar exceptions for special events, common ownership, and written property-owner permission. 6, which also requires every mobile vending vehicle to park within a standard parking stall under subsection (B) and limits catering-only food trucks on residential lots to serving that lot's own residents and guests.