Crackdown in Castaic to Continue : Can’t Relax Parking Laws for Truckers, Merchants Told

The California Highway Patrol said Thursday it will continue to crack down on drivers who illegally park their trucks in Castaic, despite complaints from merchants that stepped-up enforcement is driving away customers.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles County transportation planners said there is nothing that they can do to legalize double- and triple-parking, longstanding practices in the truck stop town in the northern end of the Santa Clarita Valley. Truckers routinely illegally parked long enough to buy a cup of coffee or a hamburger before hitting the road.

The CHP said a crackdown finally became necessary because Castaic is growing into a bedroom community and because residents have complained about truck traffic on Castaic Road, the community’s main thoroughfare.

Merchants, saying their livelihoods are at stake, asked the county last month to study the problem, possibly to create special parking zones for the hundreds of trucks that pass each day through the unincorporated community of 5,000 residents.

But Jo Anne Darcy, an aide to Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, told about 15 merchants Thursday that the Department of Public Works decided that the county cannot circumvent the California Vehicle Code and allow double parking.

“We don’t seem to have progressed very far,” Darcy told disappointed Castaic business owners assembled at the Valencia Library.

Big Signs on Horizon

Darcy read a letter from T.A. Tidemanson, county public works director, which said that large signs will be posted in about two weeks along Lake Hughes and Parker roads, which lead into the town from the Golden State Freeway. The signs will say: “Traffic Laws Strictly Enforced--No Double Parking,” Tidemanson wrote.

CHP Lt. Don Bossingham said the signs should help because truckers are learning to park elsewhere. “The problem does seem to be better,” he said.

Bossingham said his officers will continue writing tickets but will be less aggressive than when the crackdown started Aug. 1, in order to give truckers time to change their ways. In August, the CHP wrote 330 tickets for illegal parking but have handed out only about 100 tickets since.

Merchants welcomed the news that enforcement will be lighter. Donna Mustroleo, owner of a coin laundry that opened in November, said her business lost about $200 a week at first but has since bounced back.

Merchants said they will have to look for property to provide extra parking for the truckers. Jim Caldwell, owner of Giant Truck Stop, said: “The dinosaur is dead, the fat lady has sung; we’re not going to have double-parking.”