South Bay Postscripts : A Look Back at People and Events in the News : Residents Don’t Cotton to Decision on Loading Dock

The trucks will keep rolling down Sanford Avenue in east Wilmington, despite efforts by area residents and Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores of the harbor area to keep them off the predominantly residential street.

The Los Angeles Planning Commission voted 3 to 2 last week to permit Swift Transportation Co. to build a loading dock at its warehouse on Pacific Coast Highway at Sanford. Although it placed several conditions on its approval, the commission rejected recommendations from Flores, the residents and a hearing officer that would have prohibited trucks from entering the facility from most of Sanford and would have forbidden the unloading of trucks on the Sanford side of the warehouse.

More than 40 Wilmington residents poured into a hearing room in San Pedro in January to complain about the trucks, which haul cotton to the warehouse for export to Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Residents complained about noise, dust, trucks speeding through residential neighborhoods and trucks blocking Sanford and nearby streets.

Swift has pledged to be a good neighbor and officials from the Arizona-based company said the new loading dock will help alleviate congestion on Sanford.

But residents and a Flores’ deputy said last week that they want more than assurances from Swift. They want the city to require the company to keep the trucks and unloading operations away from nearby homes.

“This was a setback,” said Nelson Hernandez, Flores’ Wilmington deputy. “But we can appeal to the City Council, and we are now reviewing that option.”