Castaic Looking to Truckers to Safeguard Streets : Protection: Despite a recent move to ban the noisy big rigs from quiet neighborhoods, some residents see drivers’ presence as a deterrent to gangs and other undesirables.

Long before Castaic became a tract-home haven, it was truck stop heaven, complete with acres of welcoming asphalt and several coffee shops popular with highway-dazed truckers.

Many newcomers frowned on lumbering, fuel-belching big rigs passing by their neat stucco homes and groomed lawns at all hours. Only three years ago, some residents banded together to demand the removal of a truck stop they found particularly offensive.

But last week, in a 180-degree turn no big rig could easily make, several of these same residents lobbied the Town Council to reject a proposed parking ordinance that would have banned trucks from overnight parking on a residential street.

The change in attitude came because many residents of this suburban enclave now fear that the ills of urban life will make their way up to their community. They now view the presence of trucks and truckers as a deterrent to gangs and other undesirables.

“If you take the truckers away out here, I think the gangs are going to spring up like mad,” said JoAnne Park, secretary of the homeowners association at Stonegate, a 354-unit housing complex in Castaic.

“We don’t have vicious gangs and we don’t have killers here. But we have gangs trying to start up here, and I think the truckers are trying to prevent that.”

The Stonegate complex is located on Lake Hughes Road about one-quarter mile from the row of truck stops on Castaic Road, the town’s main street. Any time of day or night, several trucks are usually parked across the street from Stonegate as drivers try to catch up on sleep in a relatively quiet location.

The attempt to ban overnight truck parking on Lake Hughes Road was started by Stonegate resident Kathy Reeves, who moved into the complex 18 months ago. She said a five-foot brick wall is all that separates her bedroom from the big rigs across the street at night.

“Out here it’s so quiet and so peaceful,” Reeves said. “It’s one of the main reasons I came out here. And then these trucks come in here and they shake the whole house.”

Last month, the County Board of Supervisors had the parking proposal on its agenda. But when several Castaic residents showed up at a meeting to protest the proposal--saying they felt truckers were protecting the neighborhood--the supervisors referred the matter to the 10-member Castaic Town Council, which advises it on local issues.

Stonegate Homeowners’ President Lee Pavlacka, who led the fight against the ban, told the Town Council at a meeting last week that 337 out of 348 Stonegate residents she polled opposed the ban, although 77 of those residents wanted truckers to shut off their engines at night.

In 1992, Pavlacka and other Stonegate residents were singing a different tune.

Carrying signs with slogans such as “Protect our children from trucks” and “Castaic doesn’t need any more truck fuel stops,” about 25 Stonegate residents protested in front of OK Fuel Stop shortly after it opened for business across the street.

The protesters, led by Pavlacka, said they wanted trucks confined to Castaic Road, leaving homes free of property-devaluing noise, fumes and danger to pedestrians.

“Three years ago she fought like hell to get trucks out of there, but now they’re our godsend,” Reeves said with disdain.

(The OK Fuel Stop went out of business a short time after opening because it did not have the proper county operating permits.)

Park, of the homeowners association, said the two issues are not contradictory. The trucks pulling in and out of the truck stop, she said, posed danger to residents.

“When they had to pull out across the street, they couldn’t see those little children crossing the street,” she said. “We were not trying to stop the truckers. We were trying to stop the gas station over there.”

The Town Council approved a compromise recommendation Wednesday night, requesting that the county road department put up courtesy signs asking truckers to comply with noise abatement requirements by shutting off their engines and refrigeration units from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

“Granted, they’re not enforceable, but it keeps an honest person honest,” said Town Council President Richard Massey.

But will the trucks parked on the street keep gang members away? Deputy Greg LaVal of the anti-gang unit at the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, doubts it.

“I have never heard that to be true from anybody,” he said. “I’ve never heard that from a gangbanger. I’ve never heard that from a trucker.”

LaVal also said deputies are aware of little gang activity in the Castaic area.

Truck drivers parked on Lake Hughes Road said they never thought of themselves as neighborhood crime fighters but can understand why residents think of them as a deterrent.

“Well, I carry a gun, for one thing,” said Steve Nash, 44, a 22-year veteran of the business.

Thefts of truck parts are common in Castaic, so drivers constantly inspect their rigs and watch for suspicious people nearby, said Shukri Ali, 31, who has been driving between Sacramento and Los Angeles for eight years.

“If we see something strange, we will report it,” he said.

Several Stonegate residents were, like LaVal, skeptical that the presence of trucks would protect the neighborhood. Julie Chong, 38, a nine-year Stonegate resident, said she has had trouble waking up truckers whose engine noise was bothering her.

“If I can’t wake the truckers up to tell them to quit doing what they’re doing, how can I expect them to chase away gang members doing graffiti?” Chong asked.

Deterrent or nuisance, residents have to make their peace with the truckers because they aren’t going away, Park said.

“Those truckers were here way before we were,” she said. “In fact, they made this town. If they weren’t here, the town probably wouldn’t be, either.”