Hanford, CA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Vending Zones (2026)

Section 5.64.040 sets the citywide baseline for every mobile food vending vehicle before any street- or property-specific rules apply. Vehicles are barred from every city-owned parking lot, park, or garage except Civic Park (§ 5.64.040(D)). Yellow commercial loading zones and white passenger loading zones are off-limits (§ 5.64.040(E)), and a truck cannot stop within 25 feet of an intersection to make a sale or park within 10 feet of a building or another vending vehicle (§ 5.64.040(F)-(G)). Section 5.64.050 then splits the where-allowed question by location.

On a public street, a short-term vendor cannot work the same block longer than 10 minutes and cannot return within 500 feet of that spot for four hours; it also cannot sit within 250 feet of a brick-and-mortar restaurant or within one block of a school between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on a school day, and needs four feet of clear sidewalk if it operates near one (§ 5.64.050(B)). Parking in the same public-street spot longer than that is flatly prohibited (§ 5.64.050(C)). On private property, a vendor needs the owner's written authorization, must sit on a fully developed, paved parcel outside the zone district's required setback, and cannot use parking spaces the site's primary use needs to meet its own code minimum.

The 250-foot restaurant buffer applies there too, unless the truck and restaurant share ownership, the restaurant owner consents in writing, or the vendor is in Civic Park for a certified farmers' market or permitted event. Within 150 feet of the R-L, R-M, R-H or O-R residential zones, vending is barred from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. (§ 5.64.050(D)). A single private-property location gets a temporary use permit for up to six months; staying longer needs a conditional use permit in the zones listed at Section 17.08.030.