Mercer County, NJ Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Vending Zones (2026)

A. 21, flatly prohibit unauthorized commercial food sales inside any county park or recreation area. Under the heading "Commercial Uses," the rule states that no person shall engage in the business of soliciting, selling or peddling food or beverages for human consumption within a county park, and separately bars hawking, peddling or vending any goods, ware or merchandise, without the Park Commission's express written consent. That means a food truck, cart, or walk-up vendor cannot set up in Ridley Creek State Park style areas, Mercer County Park, Grover's Mill, Rosedale, Baldpate or any other Park Commission property without first securing that written authorization; the parks themselves are open sunrise to sunset, 365 days a year, so the vending ban applies across the entire operating calendar.

A related picnic-area provision requires vehicles delivering food and beverages for a permitted event to be moved out of the area to designated parking within 30 minutes of the event's start time on the permit, showing the Commission treats food delivery and food sales as tightly time- and location-boxed activities even when a permit exists. There is no separate zone carved out where trucks may vend at will; the default is prohibition, with case-by-case written consent as the only path in.