Norco Puts Trucks in Their Place--at Home : Preliminary OK Given Ordinance Regulating Parking and Restricting Routes Through City

Political debates in Norco generally focus on the horses--and other animals--that give the city its fiercely defended rural atmosphere. But City Council members turned their attention this week to what some residents dismiss as big-city concerns: horseless carriages.

The council, in a lengthy meeting, gave preliminary approval Wednesday night to an ordinance that would restrict truck routes and parking in the city and also voted to extend its ban on development in a commercial area it hopes to fill with automobile dealers.

Dozens of Norco truckers turned out to angrily oppose provisions of a new truck ordinance that they said could threaten their livelihoods. The proposal included a prohibition on “starting or operation of commercial vehicle engines . . . generators or compressors” between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Trucker Ron Bertucci questioned the need for such a limit on noise in a city “that has no barking-dog ordinance . . . where you hear mules braying and dogs barking at dawn.”

After hearing about a dozen truckers complain that the ordinance’s time limits were arbitrary and unreasonable, the council rephrased the rule to prohibit only “continuous operation,” thus allowing drivers to start their trucks and leave during late-night and early-morning hours.

Trucks Allowed at Homes

The truck ordinance, which passed by a 3-2 vote, would allow each Norco resident property owner to park a single commercial vehicle on his lot, if he owns and operates the vehicle.

It would apply only to vehicles of more than 11,000 pounds gross weight and would require trucks to be parked beside or behind the owner’s house, at least 25 feet from any neighbor’s home. The 25-foot parking distance could be waived by written permission of the trucker’s neighbor.

If the council votes final approval of the ordinance in two weeks, said Public Works Director Jim Ashcraft, “we would be the first city in California to allow large commercial vehicles in residential areas.”

The ordinance would also designate six city streets as truck routes: Hamner Avenue, North Drive, River Road and parts of California Avenue and 6th and 2nd streets.

Mayor Richard L. MacGregor repeatedly stressed that the city’s “current (truck) ordinance is much more restrictive” than that proposed. “What we’re trying to do here is liberalize what’s here now,” he said.

‘Bigger City Ideas’

Many truckers attending the council meeting remained unconvinced, however, that the council was concerned with their interests. “The only reason I moved out here,” Tom Folster told the council, “was because you could park your truck and have horses.”

City planners “are trying to bring the bigger city ideas to our small town,” said Bob Bradley.

The city’s current truck ordinance, enacted in 1979 but not generally enforced, prohibits parking of trucks of more than 6,000 pounds in designated residential areas.

Mayor Pro Tem Ron Wildfong urged passage of the new ordinance, saying it is needed both to protect truckers’ neighbors and to allow owner-operators like himself to keep their trucks at home legally. “I’d be gone, too, if the ordinance that’s on the books was enforced,” he said.

Council members Steve Nathan and Naomi Feagan voted against the new truck ordinance. Nathan said truck parking permits should not be limited to owner/operators but should extend to drivers whose employers require them to keep their rigs overnight.

Nathan also favored allowing permits for truckers who rent their homes in Norco and allowing two or more trucks to be parked on a single residential lot.

Auto Mall Proposal

Feagan is afraid trucking could eventually drive animal-keeping out of Norco, she said, and opposed the measure because it fails to stop the growth of truck parking. The council should prohibit future residents from parking their trucks in the city, Feagan said.

After the long and often acrimonious hearing on the truck ordinance, the council voted 4 to 1, with little discussion, to extend its moratorium on development in the proposed Norco Auto Mall.

The moratorium is designed to prevent growth along Hamner Avenue, between 2nd and 3rd streets, while city officials formulate plans to attract as many as 10 or 11 automobile dealers.

An auto mall could help the city attract “accessory uses,” like tire stores and specialty repair shops, to the immediate area and “would increase other business opportunities, such as restaurants,” Ralph (Bud) Plender, director of community development, has said.

Tripling of Sales Tax Income

Norco, which currently has no new-car dealers, could stand to gain “approximately 1 1/2 or 2 million dollars a year in sales-tax revenue,” tripling its current income from sales taxes, Plender estimated.

The moratorium--extended for 10 1/2 months by the council Wednesday night--will buy time for the city to hold public hearings on the project’s environmental impact, to continue and expand negotiations with auto dealers, and to enact a specific plan for the mall, said John Donlevy, city manager.

Some small areas included in the original, 45-day moratorium were exempted from the new development ban: an existing residence, two commercial lots too small to be included in the auto mall, and a lot on 2nd Street owned by MCR Landscaping, which is now based in Orange County.