Gurnee adopts food-truck licensing ordinance with 500-foot buffer and $500 annual fee

The Gurnee Village Board on Oct. 20 approved Ordinance 2025-71 to regulate and license food trucks in the village, establishing a 500-foot buffer from existing food and beverage taxpayers and a licensing framework intended to ensure tax collection and address resident complaints.

The ordinance requires food-truck operators to obtain a village license to operate at regular sites outside the 500-foot buffer and establishes a $500 annual license for those regular locations. It also creates a $50 special-event license for food trucks that appear on an occasional basis, limited to 12 events per year; special events run by other taxing bodies and multi-day events available to the public are not counted toward the 12-event limit. The ordinance is effective Jan. 1, 2026.

A staff member who presented the proposal said the village originally proposed a $1,500 fee in May but that peer communities charged between $200 and $500, which informed the $500 annual fee. "We originally proposed $1,500 in May, and everyone thought that was too much," the staff member said. The staff member said the $50 special-event fee reflects administrative costs while avoiding a disincentive for park-district events.

The ordinance also bans exterior speaker use and flashing lights by food trucks, requires operators to notify Village Hall of proposed locations so staff can determine suitability, and makes clear that food and beverage taxes apply to food-truck sales. Staff said requiring a license will provide the village a mechanism to know where food trucks operate and to supply vendors with the state reporting form that the village uses to reconcile local tax collection and to enable audits if necessary.

Trustees asked how enforcement would work and whether commonly used parking lots, such as those at big-box stores, would be affected. Staff said code enforcement will conduct outreach to known food trucks, hand out the application and buffer map, and follow up if unlicensed trucks are located. The staff member said trucks operating inside the 500-foot buffer, such as in some Home Depot parking areas, would not be permissible unless they met the ordinance's requirements for an allowable site.

The board approved the ordinance by roll call vote; trustees recorded aye votes and the motion carried. Implementation steps noted by staff include updating the buffer map to reflect current food-and-beverage businesses, notifying known food trucks, and making application materials available before the Jan. 1, 2026 effective date.

The ordinance text and the village's buffer map were included in the board packet; the packet also includes a memorandum from Village Attorney Wenner explaining enforcement and tax-collection implications.