Ocala, FL Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Vending Zones (2026)

Beyond the sidewalk restriction, Sec. 22-358 ties every licensed mobile vendor's location to the city's zoning code. Subsection (a)(3) makes it a condition of MVL use that a vendor not "enter upon any zoning district or area of the city, except as permitted by section 122-281 et seq. of this Code," so the zoning chapter, not the vendor division itself, decides which districts a food truck or cart may actually work in. The division adds a school-safety buffer: subsection (a)(7) bars a vendor from entering "within 500 feet, measured by ordinary pedestrian route, of any elementary or secondary school building" for a window running from 30 minutes before classes begin to 30 minutes after they end each day.

Vending is further narrowed in GU (governmental use) zones: subsection (b) allows only edibles to be sold there, so a GU-zoned area is open to food trucks specifically but closed to a vendor selling other goods, services or rentals. The same subsection (a) list also blocks vending from no-parking areas and loading zones, from metered spaces without paying the meter outside a GU zone, and within 500 feet of a licensed business selling the same goods or services, a buffer also waived in a GU zone.

Sec. 22-347 reinforces that nothing in the mobile vendor division authorizes a zoning violation, meaning a vendor who is otherwise MVL-compliant can still be shut down for operating in a district the zoning code does not permit. Enforcement runs through the Building Department and Ocala Police Department under Sec. 22-345, and the Building Official may suspend or revoke the MVL under Sec. 22-355 for any violation of the division, with the vendor able to appeal a revocation to the city council within ten days.