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

Section 124-157(a)(4) of the Unified Development Code lists the only zoning districts where a mobile food dispensing vehicle may operate with the property owner's consent: Commercial General (CG), Industrial Light Warehousing (ILW), Planned Industrial Development (PID), Commercial Neighborhood (CN), Office, Professional & Institutional (OPI), Planned Commerce Development (PCD), Commercial Highway Interchange (CHI), Commercial Intensive (CI), Commercial Marine (CM), and Governmental Use (GU). Operating in a residential or open-use district is not authorized under this section. Within those permitted districts, the truck cannot sit in any of the property's required parking spaces, cannot impede or endanger pedestrian or vehicular traffic, and must be set back at least 50 feet from any abutting residential zoning district; if a residential structure is nearby, the setback grows to 150 feet unless an intervening nonresidential building screens the truck from view.

The vehicle must operate on a developed property, though it may extend onto an adjoining vacant parcel held under the same ownership. Operating hours are limited to the hours of the host business or institution the truck is paired with, and no more than two mobile food dispensing vehicles may work a single parcel at one time unless the county has issued a Temporary Use Permit for a Special Event.