KSHB 41 reporter Rachel Henderson covers neighborhoods in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. Share your story idea with Rachel.
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Kansas City, Kansas, food truck operators say business has been slow since the Unified Government issued a moratorium preventing food trucks from operating in the popular 18th and Central area.
“We don’t have the same business,” said Francisco ‘Paco’ Valencia, the owner of Paco’s Tacos.
He owns one of the trucks operating near 18th and Central the Unified Government banned from working in the area for a minimum of 60 days in December.
Valencia and other food truck owners spoke with KSHB 41’s Megan Abundis about their reaction to the ban in December.
Valencia said it was an ideal location for businesses, and despite previous tension surrounding food truck hours, they still got several hundred customers a day.
“We didn’t know what to do, that surprised us,” Valencia said.
The entire restricted area outlined in the Dec. 19 moratorium spans from 17th and 19th streets and Grandview Boulevard to Wilson Boulevard.
According to the Unified Government, there were several reasons for these restrictions, including disposal of cooking grease and other food waste into stormwater drains, evidence of burning trash, an unpermitted portable restroom, road and right-of-way closures and a food truck continuously parked in the same location for weeks.
The UG cites this mobile vending ordinance when referencing the aforementioned code violations.
“We basically just wanted to hit a pause button,” said Jeff Miles, the director of the Environmental Services division of Public Works under the Unified Government. “Let us get in there, clean it, get back to 100%, and then educate.”
The moratorium is taking a toll on businesses like Paco’s Tacos, and even the UG feels it.
“We want them to succeed,” Miles said. “I eat up there actually quite often. I love food trucks, all businesses in Kansas City, Kansas.”
Miles says there’s no proof to blame any one food truck for dumping grease into stormwater drains, but since there was grease found in the area where food trucks were, Miles says it was easier to restrict access to that area.
“We needed free access to all that infrastructure,” Miles said. “We’ve already sent machinery up to start some cleaning. This colder weather has slowed things down a little bit, but we’ll be back at it as well.”
Miles showed KSHB 41’s Rachel Henderson photos of grease dumped into storm drains from December 2024, but he said the UG has known about dumping for months.
“Our team is going to meet with all the food truck owners; we’re going to invite them in and go through an education process that we do throughout the year,” Miles said.
Valencia said he’s open to conversation but hasn’t been approached by the city to have a conversation about his issues.
“If I had the chance to speak with the city or anybody, I would do it,” Valencia said.
He said he’d like to start an organization to represent food trucks in the area but doesn’t know where to start.
He says having a liaison who can go back and forth between the food trucks and the city might make code enforcement more effective.
“We like this community, Wyandotte County. We want to be here,” Valencia said.
But if worst comes to worst, he might not stay in Kansas.
He says supporting multiple employees with just his brick and mortar — which is only open Friday through Sunday — has gotten more difficult since the ban.
In fact, he says he re-opened it once the ban went into effect.
“It’s hard,” Valencia said. “We cannot support it. It’s not enough to pay our bills.”
The final decision about what happens after 60 days is not up to Miles. It’s up to UG leadership.
All Valencia wants is to get back to business.
“We don’t ask for anything free,” Valencia said. “We just want to work.”
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