Cobb County, GA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Vending Zones (2026)

Cobb County Code of Ordinances § 78-97 sets out exactly where a mobile food vendor, defined at § 78-95 as a readily moveable, motorized or towed wheeled retail food establishment equipped to prepare and serve food under Cobb and Douglas Public Health Department rules, may operate in the unincorporated county. Subsection (a) is blunt: a mobile food vendor cannot conduct business or operate in the public right-of-way unless invited or permitted under subsection (d). Three lawful paths remain. A vendor can join a 'mobile food vendor event,' defined as two or more vendors assembled at a specified location under this subdivision.

A vendor can work a private event closed to the general public and limited to guests or designated individuals, provided the property owner or a designee gives the community development agency director written consent naming the dates, times and exact location. Or a vendor can operate on county or other public property, but only at the request or invitation of an authorized official, department head, director, manager or employee with oversight of that property, who must relay written consent, with dates, times and location, to the community development agency director.

Before selling anywhere, § 78-96 requires a business license from the business license division manager and a valid food service permit from the health department; vendors invited to a county-sponsored event under § 78-97(d) skip the business license but still need the health permit. 00 liability policy naming the county as additional insured, 30 days' written cancellation notice, and a county attorney-approved indemnity agreement. Vendors may not play music, make announcements, or create sounds to draw customers, moving or stationary, and units cannot sit unattended on a vending site outside operating hours; only food and non-alcoholic beverages may be sold.