In September, City Council approved an ordinance which banned tractor trailer parking in residential neighborhoods. In February, Council members decided that tractor trailers can be parked in residential areas with a permit. Truckers were given 30 days to apply for the permit.
However, the September ordinance has not been amended to include the permits. Even though the 30-day period to apply for a permit has expired, Trinity staff members cannot issue any permits until the ordinance is amended.
“The permits have to be part of the ordinance,” Bailie said last Thursday. “The ordinance will be adopted and then the permits will be issued.
“Staff is kind of in a holding pattern,” she added. “We are taking the information, but not issuing permits.”
At the end of the March 16 meeting, after the regular agenda items had been discussed, Bailie requested an extension to the deadline which would allow truck drivers to apply for a permit. The extension would allow the city staff to publicize the permits in the city’s spring newsletter and allow Council time to clarify precisely what is allowed by permit.
“I stand by my motion — 30 days,” answered Councilman Kelly Grooms, and the Council agreed.
Grooms’ original motion, made at the end of a heated discussion during the Feb. 16 meeting, allowed truck drivers to apply for a permit within 30 days, provided the driver was the owner of the property where it would be parked. The deadline was March 18.
Even though the filing period has ended, the requirement drew opinions during the public comment portion of the meeting, which is held prior to Council’s discussion of agenda items. Each speaker is allowed three minutes to address the elected body Chester Ayres, a vocal supporter of the original ordinance which banned truck parking and an opponent of the permits, said the original ordinance was passed to keep residential areas residential.
“Issuing permits to truckers is like issuing permits to smokers, they’re getting around the law,” Ayres told the Council. “I’m asking that these permits have a sunset clause, that they expire on a specific date.”
A sunset clause terminates a law or portions of a law after a specific date unless further legislative action is taken.
Pam Goins just wanted to know why the Council would allow permits because it reverses the original decision to ban tractor-trailer parking in residential neighborhoods.
“The original ordinance was well thought out,” she said. “Why change it for a minority? If this is the way it goes, zoning laws are a joke. The only rights truckers have are the same as others — the right to use their home as a home.”
Mary Hiatt, a neighbor of Goins, agreed.
Jerry Sturgis, another long-time supporter of the truck parking ban, expressed his neighborhood’s discontent with the permits.
“Our neighborhood feels you [City Council] have discriminated against us!” Sturgis railed. “The trucker next door has an unpaid citation from the city for $1,250 from when the ordinance was first passed. This permit is going to wash that away!”
(Bailie confirmed that the citation was issued and unpaid, but said the Council would make the final decision as to whether or not it must be paid when it determines permit requirements.)
The truckers also had something to say during the March meeting.
“I understand (Pam Goins) and the others, things should be handled differently,” Trent Wilmoth said. “I’m just trying to make an honest living. Why don’t we work things out as neighbors and stop wasting tax money?”
Tommy Wilmoth, Trent Wilmoth’s father, agreed, and added that the situation was ridiculous.
“You’re trying to bring (solutions for) heavily populated areas into Trinity when this whole situation is over one group,” he complained. “Let’s set up a boxing ring and settle this!”
Wilmoth’s suggestion drew some applause from the audience, but he was rebuked by Mayor Carlton Boyles for violating procedure. According to Boyles, his suggestion was aimed at the audience and the rules of public comment require that those speaking only address the Council.
Ed Lohr, a vocal proponent of truckers’ right to park on their own property, was upset that the permits might do more than just allow existing trucks to keep parking.
“I came to the pre-agenda meeting and was shocked to hear that we can only have one truck per property,” he said.
Permit items tentatively agreed upon include annual renewal of the permit, a specific definition of tractor and trailer, allowing one tractor and no trailers per property, and allowing drivers to exchange or replace trucks. Drivers will have to provide a valid commercial driver’s license (CDL) to be eligible.
It has not been decided if the truck owner must be the owner of the property where the truck is parked.
Bailie said the city would work out the details concerning the permits and ordinance at a special called meeting set for 4 p.m. today (March 25) at City Hall.
There will be no public comments at the meeting.
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