R.H. Estates Will Extend Ban on Heavy Trucks

Rolling Hills Estates has joined the Palos Verdes Peninsula truck wars by moving to ban all heavy trucks from portions of Palos Verdes Drive North and three other streets. The full effect, however, would not be felt until next summer.

The extension of the ban is the latest skirmish in a battle between Rancho Palos Verdes and neighboring cities, where officials are concerned about trucks using their streets to haul material to and from large developments being planned in Rancho Palos Verdes.

Rolling Hills Estates currently bans such trucks unless trips begin or end in the city, but an ordinance introduced Tuesday by the City Council would prohibit all trucks weighing more than 6,000 pounds.

The council, however, agreed to retain an exemption on Palos Verdes Drive North for trucks doing business within the city until June 30, 1990. The decision was made at the request of Chandler’s Palos Verdes Sand & Gravel Co., which is pouring concrete for the new Peninsula Center Post Office and uses the route to get to the construction site. Both the company and the post office are in Rolling Hills Estates.

John Robertson, Chandler’s general manager, said his company’s bid on the post office job was based on a route using the drive. He said longer trips would add to his costs.

Considered Last Spring

A total ban was first considered last spring after Rolling Hills Estates learned that a pending Rancho Palos Verdes construction project could produce a stream of trucks hauling dirt along Palos Verdes Drive North to the quarry for 2 1/2 months. The city feared that would further slow traffic and damage the roadbed, but deferred action until it could study the ban’s possible effects on other streets, including those in Torrance and Lomita.

The action last spring by Rolling Hills Estates was criticized by Rancho Palos Verdes as well as Torrance and Lomita, which feared that additional trucks would be forced onto their streets. Lomita has since then reversed its position.

Terry Rodrique, Rolling Hills Estates traffic engineer, concluded this week that truck traffic on Hawthorne Boulevard, Pacific Coast Highway and Crenshaw Boulevard would grow by less than 1% of the current volume as the result of the ban.

The Rolling Hills Estates ordinance, which is expected to be given final approval Aug. 22, bans trucks heavier than 6,000 pounds from Palos Verdes Drive North as far east as Palos Verdes Drive East, where the street widens; Rolling Hills Road from the drive to the north city limit; northbound lanes of Crenshaw from Silver Spur Road to the north city limit, and Silver Spur between Hawthorne and Palos Verdes Drive North.

An emergency ban on through truck traffic of more than 6,000 pounds was imposed in late July in Palos Verdes Estates. It has already drawn fire from Rancho Palos Verdes officials, who fear that motorists might be ticketed for operating such private vehicles as pickup trucks and motor homes.

Refused Request for Delay

The Palos Verdes Estates City Council last week refused a request from Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor Jacki Bacharach to delay final passage of its permanent ban. Instead, Palos Verdes Estates officials underscored that their intent is to control dirt-hauling trucks from several proposed projects in Rancho Palos Verdes, not private vehicles.

Bacharach said her council “has strong feelings” about any ban on trucks and will discuss a response to Rolling Hills Estates’ action on Tuesday.

“We have no major Rancho Palos Verdes building at the present time so I do not understand the problem,” she said. Bacharach said that if safety is the concern, “we should immediately take off (the streets) all unsafe trucks.”

Rancho Palos Verdes, however, has approved two developments that will involve large-scale movement of dirt. They are the Marriott Corp. retirement complex above the Peninsula Center, which entails removing 165,000 cubic yards of dirt, and a 43-home development along Palos Verdes Drive South near the former site of Marineland, from which 250,000 cubic yards of dirt would be removed. Neither project has begun construction.

The staffs of the three peninsula cities involved in the truck controversy have agreed to meet by next week to discuss truck safety.

‘Undue Pressure’

Lomita Mayor Chuck Belva said last week that he does not believe the action by Rolling Hills Estates would adversely effect Lomita because it does not cut off truck access from the harbor to the Chandler quarry on Palos Verdes Drive East. Since the ban stops at Palos Verdes Drive East, trucks can get to the quarry using the wider stretch of Palos Verdes Drive North to the east.

Torrance Mayor Katy Geissert, however, said her city will suffer from the combined actions of Rolling Hills Estates and Palos Verdes Estates. “It will place undue pressure on our streets and heighten safety concerns,” she said Thursday. “We’re all asking for a lot of trouble if we start building walls around our boundaries.”

In deciding to extend the exemption for Chandler, the council overrode objections of Councilwoman Jacki McGuire. The council said it would be unfair to penalize a local company that is building a post office the city fought for.