Livonia, MI Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Vending Zones (2026)

Section 6.51(3) of the Zoning Ordinance groups drive-in restaurants, restaurants with drive-thru or drive-up windows, and food trucks into one category and confines all three to Livonia's most intensive commercial districts. The section allows the use in the C-2 District only through waiver use approval, meaning a Planning Commission review and City Council vote, and allows it outright as a permitted use in the C-3 District. Every other zoning district in the city, including all residential and office districts, is off-limits to this category of use.

Beyond the district limitation, the section sets physical standards that shape where on a C-2 or C-3 parcel a truck or drive-in facility can sit. Ingress and egress must come from a public street with an existing or planned right-of-way of at least 120 feet, reached by two separate driveways set at least 30 feet apart. Lighting must be arranged to reflect away from any adjacent residential district and toward the commercial area, and no drive-in restaurant may sit closer than 200 feet, measured point to point, from a religious institution.

A waiver use application under Section 6.51(3)(A) requires site plan review, so a vendor cannot simply park in an unapproved C-2 lot; the property owner or operator needs city sign-off tying the specific site to these standards before food trucks can serve there on a regular basis.