Amherst appetite for Lloyd's lacking

AMHERST, N.Y. (WIVB) - Buffalo's food truck controversy may be over, but the battle is just beginning outside of the city. Lloyd's is cooking up a taco filled with controversy in Amherst.

The truck was parked in front of Roswell Park on Tuesday and guest checks were piled high. Lloyd's Taco Truck is doing well in Buffalo, but outside the city, it may be a different story. According to their Twitter account, the truck was "shut down" by Amherst Police in Monday when the truck was parked at Amherst Commerce Park on Ridge Lea Road.

Councilman Mark Manna says the town overreacted by telling Lloyd's they would be towed unless they left the site and is now trying to facilitate a dialogue between the mobile taco stand and the town. No one from Lloyd's would speak to News 4 on camera.

"Right now, these food trucks are being sucked into a black hole of governmental regulation," Councilman Manna said.

The company has a beef with the antiquated laws in the Town of Amherst. there's no official rule regarding mobile food vendors, but some council members say that's not entirely true.

Councilman Manna says under the current law, the truck falls under the peddling and soliciting clause in the Amherst Town Code. He says not only are they considered peddlers, they're also considered a transient business because they sell food from a temporary truck in the town.

But Councilman Manna said, "It doesn't address where they can be or where they cannot be, those kind of issues."

Instead the law only says they must first obtain a vendor permit at a cost of more than a hundred bucks.

"They're going to be allowed to operate until such time where the town can re-write our codes so there's more clarity," Councilman Manna said.

But permits issued to "transient businesses" expire 90 days after they were issued, so Lloyd's would need to continually re-apply. For now, the legal battle wages on.

Councilman Manna says the town council will be creating food truck regulations, modeling them after cities like Buffalo that have already adopted the food truck phenomenon. He expects they should be written by the end of the year.