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

Section 18-15.7 of the Novato Municipal Code lists where and when a mobile food vending vehicle cannot vend. Seven separate limits apply to a vehicle stopped, parked or standing on a public street, alley or highway. First, the posted speed limit cannot be greater than 35 miles per hour. Second, the customer cannot be standing in the part of the roadway open to vehicular traffic. Third, the vehicle cannot be parked in violation of the Novato code or the California Vehicle Code. Fourth, the vehicle cannot be within 1,500 feet of the nearest property line of any public or private school between 7:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. on regular school days. Fifth, vending is barred between 9:00 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. Sixth, the vehicle cannot be parked within 75 feet of the nearest point where two or more intersecting public streets or roadways meet. Seventh, it cannot be within 200 feet of another mobile food vending vehicle that has already stopped to vend.

"School" in § 18-15.3 means all public and private schools giving instruction from kindergarten through grade 12, and "regular school days" are the days a school is in session. The City Council tied the school buffer to its findings in § 18-15.1 that vending vehicles stop in busy roadways and cluster near school sites where parents drop off and pick up children.

The same section adds operating rules: no vending to a person standing on the left side of a vehicle stopped in the roadway, no backing up to make a sale, no unauthorized riders, no minor under 16 riding while the vehicle is vending except the owner's or operator's children or a legal employee, and no dispensing of anything other than food. Section 18-15.6 requires refuse containers large enough to carry away all refuse generated within a twenty-five-foot radius of the vehicle during vending.

Private property is a separate track. Under § 18-15.10 a vehicle can vend on private property only if the use complies with the zoning chapter (chapter XIX) and the vendor holds written consent signed by the owner or the owner's authorized agent, produced immediately on request of a police or code enforcement officer.