Scranton, PA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Vending Zones (2026)

Section 256-2B of the City Code restricts where a licensed food cart or food truck can set up relative to fixed restaurants. No vendor, operator or owner, even one licensed under Chapter 340 (the City's general peddling and solicitation chapter), may locate or stand and transact business within 100 feet of a restaurant's service area or its public entranceway. The section defines 'service area' broadly enough to include outdoor dining that the City has approved, so a restaurant's sidewalk cafe extends its own buffer zone the same as its front door does.

Two exceptions narrow the rule under §§ 256-2C and 256-2D: the 100-foot buffer does not apply to a vendor operating on privately owned premises if the vendor has the record-title owner's written permission to do business there, and it does not apply at all to vendors selling only pre-packaged food and beverages, since those don't compete directly with a sit-down restaurant's food service. The rule sits alongside the separate hours-of-operation restriction in § 256-2A, so a vendor has to clear both the time window and the location buffer to vend lawfully near Scranton's restaurant districts, including Center City.