Nicholasville, KY Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Vending Zones (2026)

Section 17-28 opens with an exception clause: unless otherwise permitted or authorized by the City of Nicholasville, no itinerant merchant shall locate or conduct business in four situations. Subsection (a) sets a fifteen (15) foot buffer from any driveway or other main entrance to a building, which the affected property owner or authorized agent can waive in express writing. Subsection (b) sets a five hundred (500) foot buffer around a special event, waivable only by the special event coordinator in express writing. Section 17-24(d) defines a special event as any government sponsored activity, festival, event or other community gathering, and the city commission can declare a non-government event equivalent by majority vote.

Subsection (c) closes any area closed for an emergency. Subsection (d) bars public property, including the public right-of-way, unless the merchant has additional licensure and the property has been designated by resolution, ordinance or pilot program, or the city has otherwise given express permission. Zoning also decides location. Under § 17-30(b), the Division of Planning and Zoning can approve a permit only if required off-street parking is maintained, the site allows proper vehicular, pedestrian and fire access, and the site is zoned to permit restaurants as a principal permitted use or has site restrictions that make the business compliant.

The same section deems downtown a favorable area. Section 17-26(e) allows no more than two consecutive weeks at one address, followed by a minimum of thirty days away. Section 17-29 forbids any property owner from letting an itinerant merchant operate in violation of Article IV.