PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — There was a step forward Wednesday for those in support of parking commercial trucks on their properties in Loxahatchee and The Acreage.
The board of county commissioners initially voted in favor of a plan that would enable residents to park large trucks on their land.
Some residents have said the ordinance is affecting their livelihood while others contend it's ruining their rural lifestyle.
Just after noon Wednesday, the board of county commissioners voted in favor, 4 to 3, on a measure backed by Palm Beach County Commissioner Sara Baxter.
"A man greater than myself once said freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction," Baxter said.
Shoulder to shoulder with truckers ahead of the zoning meeting, Baxter pushed to let small business owners park their commercial vehicles at agricultural-zoned homes.
Baxter said recent state laws have changed the weight limits for what makes a truck commercial and what's allowed in residential areas.
"They are trying to push us out of that area while we were there all along," one trucker said ahead of the meeting.
Some say the nearly 200 recent citations and fines are causing undue hardship on truckers.
"Most people have been able for a long time to park their semi-trucks in The Acreage," Baxter said.
Now, there's an amendment to the Unified Land Development Code.
"Changes in the enforcement of code regulations have unfairly targeted small business owners and threatened their livelihoods and way of life," Baxter said.
That way of life is something many feel strongly about.
"I've been living out there 24 years," trucker Jim Laclair said. "They are saying that the roads can't handle it. That's what Indian Trail just got done saying, and it's not right. I mean these big trucks, the tractor trailers when they are empty, they don't tear up the roads near as bad as what the dump trucks do from Indian Trails.”
The Indian River Improvement District maintains the area was not built to handle it.
Others argue that it will change the way of life in the area.
"I don't want my AR district, where my wildlife and my rural lifestyle is gonna be disturbed due to semi-tractor-trailers," one opponent said at Wednesday's meeting. "Dump trucks and tractor-trailers don't belong in the neighborhood. You are taking away our property rights."
The next steps include a first hearing on the ordinance change on Jan. 25.
That's when officials said they'll revisit and make any tweaks.
Also expected to come up is another issue on how to handle the fines incurred for those who do come into compliance.
