LA HABRA : City Looks at Ways to Quiet Harbor Blvd.

In response to residents’ complaints, the City Council will tonight consider imposing a vehicle weight restriction for the northern section of Harbor Boulevard in the hope of making traffic on the road quieter.

At a 7 p.m. meeting, the council will discuss establishing a 6,000-pound maximum weight for vehicles traveling on Harbor Boulevard between Whittier Boulevard and the northern city boundary. The weight limit would keep heavy trucks from using the road.

The council will also consider abolishing Harbor Boulevard as a designated truck route through the city, 33 years after it declared the road open to trucks.

At a council meeting two weeks ago, more than 120 residents flooded council chambers and complained about the racket from Harbor Boulevard, which they said has become unbearably noisy since Los Angeles County constructed a major road north of the city that connects to it.

Harbor Boulevard formerly connected only to Fullerton Road, a two-lane curving pathway with 15-m.p.h. warning signs.

But the new extension of Harbor Boulevard is a four-lane highway that shoots straight through the hills to new subdivisions in Los Angeles County.

City Manager Lee Risner told the residents that because the construction took place in Los Angeles County, La Habra had no control over it.

Barbara Kays, who has criticized the city’s unwillingness to contest the county’s construction, said she is not satisfied with the weight limit. Speaking in her back yard Monday, 30 feet from the rush of traffic, Kays said: “If I were to be looking at this house (to buy), I wouldn’t even consider it,” she said.

Kays said before the expansion, she and her family used to eat dinner on the patio. Now the table and chairs sit under plastic to protect them from the greasy soot Kays said blankets her back yard.

Judy Larsen, president of the North Hills Homeowners Assn., which led the outcry, said she received a call Friday from Risner, who offered to meet with her to discuss the noise issue.