Southaven, MS Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Vending Zones (2026)

Sec. 8-163(d) applies to every transient business offering merchandise for sale, and food vendors fall inside it. The site must be zoned planned commercial (C-4) or planned unit development (PUD) with C-4 underlying uses. Location must be at a lighted intersection of two arterial roads, which the section defines as streets designed to move large volumes of traffic and provide access to adjacent land uses; the designated roads are identified in chapter 6, "transportation," of the city's comprehensive plan.

The city clerk's office issues no more than two (2) transient permits per intersection at any one (1) time, and the two allowed sites must sit on diagonal corners. The vendor must be at least twenty (20) feet back from the curb or right-of-way, and a minimum of eight (8) off-street parking spaces must be available in addition to the spaces required for any other business on the property. Sanitary toilet facilities must be available, usable and within one hundred fifty (150) feet of the temporary business. Temporary toilet facilities are not acceptable, and permanent facilities must be open at all times including weekends and holidays. Sub-paragraph (8) sends food sellers to the DeSoto County Health Department for sanitary facility requirements.

The property owner has a separate step. Under Sec. 8-159(b), each C-4 or PUD property that wants to rent space to transient vending applies for a right to vend permit, good for six (6) calendar months per year, running consecutively. The permit is reviewed against all bulk regulations in the zoning and building chapters, and if the site complies and has excess parking, it is granted at a cost of $250. The vendor then attaches a copy of that permit to the license application under Sec. 8-160(a)(5), and under Sec. 8-164(a) the license stays at the location stated on the original application. Sec. 8-163(g) keeps every vendor off public rights-of-way and vacant lots.