Commissioner Weiss: Truck parking not appropriate for residential Acreage | Opinion
At its Nov. 29 meeting, the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners, spurred by a vocal group of residents, took the first vote out of three to relax the rules for parking commercial vehicles in residential areas of The Acreage. Though I support revising the current rules to allow for some additional commercial vehicle parking for legitimate home-based businesses, I think the board went down the wrong path in voting to allow for semi-truck parking. My colleagues can reverse course at the Jan. 25 meeting and I hope they will.
After the November meeting I heard from scores of residents from The Acreage who have legitimate concerns about allowing more commercial vehicle parking in these residentially zoned areas. They are worried about damage to roads and drainage systems, environmental impacts, economic consequences and changes to their way of life. Residents from outside the Acreage who live on large lots are apprehensively asking: Are we next?
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As an elected official, my job is to protect the health and well-being of residents in our county and balance competing interests. The proposal under consideration is not balanced and could do irreparable harm if enacted. It’s just bad policy. Let me explain where I’m coming from.
Currently the code allows property owners to store one commercial vehicle weighing no more than 12,500 lbs. Properties five acres or larger can have a home contractor storage yard with up to 3 trucks owned by the resident.
At previous meetings in 2023, the board directed staff to research options related to parking commercial vehicles in The Acreage. Staff proposed allowing no more than 2 business-related vehicles up to 16,000 lbs. each. For semi-trucks and other commercial vehicles, exceeding 16,000 lbs., they presented a path forward, if the vehicle was registered at the place prior to Aug. 30, 2023.
I support changes to accommodate home-based businesses that need small trucks to run their operations. At the meeting I was willing, albeit reluctantly, to go along with “grandfathering” in the few semi-trucks that are already there. Several of my colleagues chose to ignore the staff recommendation when it came to the date and opted instead to allow any property in the area, now and in the future, up to two semi-trucks provided that the driveway is at least 24 feet wide.
Staff analysis showed that no other county or city in South Florida allows semi-truck parking in residential neighborhoods.
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I’m sympathetic to the needs of truckers. There is a nationwide shortage of parking places leading to unsafe situations. However, we aren’t going to solve this problem by providing parking in The Acreage. With more than 15,000 parcels, we could be looking at north of 30,000 semi-trucks. That’s too few to solve the national crisis but enough to destroy The Acreage!
To address semi-truck parking shortages, I’ve reached out to our federal partners to create additional parking facilities. In the meantime, I’ve asked county staff to identify public parking lots near civic centers, parks, libraries, and other facilities that could provide relief to the trucking community.
If landowners are granted the additional parking rights, we cannot reverse this unless we spend taxpayer dollars on compensating them. Owners are already illegally renting out properties to truckers looking to park. More will “cash in” if the board stays on the current track. There’s still time to turn this around! Let’s preserve local infrastructure and the quality of life for Acreage residents.
Gregg Weiss, West Palm Beach, is the Palm Beach County Commissioner for District 2.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Commissioner Weiss: limit truck parking in residential The Acreage
