New Britain, CT Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Vending Zones (2026)

The Common Council created the Public Way Green Zone program to concentrate mobile vending at seven approved curb locations: Burritt Street, Precision Court, Wilson Street, Hartford Square, Commerce Circle, Pioneer Court and St. Claire Avenue, each defined by a set distance and length from a nearby intersection. No more than two itinerant vendors may operate within a single Green Zone at a time, and vendors must stay inside the painted green striped area. Each operator needs a separate Public Way Green Zone license for every location, priced at $250 per location effective May 1, 2023, on top of the base itinerant vendor fee schedule set in Sec.

14-216 (Class M1 $105, M2 $140, M3 $185, peddler $50). Selling food, drinks or merchandise from a parked vehicle anywhere on a public way outside a designated Green Zone is banned by Sec. 14-222(a), though the director of licenses, permits and inspections may allow temporary vending in an otherwise prohibited area for special events, farmers markets or similar community activities. Sec. 14-222(b) also bars vending within 3,000 feet of any public, parochial or private school at dismissal time or for 30 minutes afterward, unless the spot is a city-designated mobile food vendor location, and within 500 feet of any restaurant.

Vendors who want to operate on private property are treated as an accessory use to an existing business's parking area and must first get Zoning Board of Appeals approval before the licenses, permits and inspections director will issue a permit. The department of licenses, permits and inspections enforces the whole article under Sec. 14-223.