A city in Texas only just recently began the enforcement of a long-standing “no commercial trucks’ ordinance, and local truck drivers are worried about the consequences.
According to the city of Palmview, Texas, the ordinance has been in place since 2005, but the city took no time to enforce it until recently, as the residential roads in question begin to deteriorate.
Valley Central News reports that the ordinance cannot actually be found on the city of Palmview’s website, but that it is present on a website that keeps a library of legal codes for cities all across the United states.
“I think the ordinance before, in the prior administration, wasn’t a focus because we really didn’t have, at that time, the infrastructure being built as we do now,” said Eric Flores, Palmview City Attorney.
Now that the ordinance is being enforced on certain residential streets with the potential for fines, truck driver residents that have lived along these streets for years are concerned about truck parking.
“It’s unfair since, like I said, we’ve been taxpayers our whole lives,” said Erick, a truck driver who lives in Palmview. “And it just seems pretty not fair for all of us here.”
“They said it’s been here since 2005, and it hasn’t been here since then; and if it has, they didn’t tell anybody,” Erick continued, pointing out that the roads were poorly constructed and poorly maintained in the first place – truckers shouldn’t have to pay for the city’s poor planning and upkeep.
“All they do is just patch it up,” said Erick. “They keep patching it up, and it rains like it is right now and a car runs over it, it doesn’t take that much weight to mess it up again.”
Additionally, Erick and other drivers say that, if they’re not allowed to drive their rig down their own residential streets, they will no longer be able to park and store their trucks on their own property, but the city has provided them with no other alternatives.
While Flores insisted that local truckers have plentiful parking options, investigators found only four truck stops in surrounding areas that allow overnight semi truck parking.
“There are private locations within the vicinity of Palmview where they can park their truck where it will be secure, and they won’t have that worry of it being broken into,” insisted Flores.
“They don’t have a truck stop, and if they would you leave your stuff behind hoping that people don’t steal your stuff, break into it or tag it or something like that. It ain’t fair for us,” said Erick.
The fine for disobeying the ‘no truck’ ordinance tops out at $300.
