Buena Park takes aim at air pollution from idling delivery trucks

Prompted by resident complaints, the Buena Park City Council considered drafting an anti-idling law to curb commercial trucks from leaving their engines on while parked for a set period of time.

Councilmember Susan Sonne requested the study session at Tuesday’s council meeting.

“Pollution is certainly a big concern here, because in my district, there’s a number of commercial areas that back up against homes,” she said. “There’s also a noise consideration, and I’ve had residents who’ve reported large commercial trucks that have idled, not just for a few minutes, but for hours in the middle of the night.”

According to a city staff report, vehicle idling is a major source of local air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. In California, an estimated 2.7 million tons of carbon dioxide is spewed into the atmosphere from idling every year while chugging 270 million gallons of fuel, the report stated.

A handful of cities across the state have passed anti-idling laws.

Palo Alto defines “idling” as leaving a vehicle running for three minutes while parked. The Bay Area city has emphasized education over enforcement of its law, but includes penalties for egregious offenders.

Santa Cruz limits vehicles to just 90 seconds before they are considered idling.

In Cupertino, anti-idling efforts are folded into the city’s climate action plan.

Cupertino partners with schools and its local chamber of commerce to spread awareness about the environmental impacts of idling to encourage compliance, from parents picking up their children at school to delivery trucks parked outside of businesses or parks where people congregate.

With Buena Park developing its own Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, Sonne saw an anti-idling law as compatible with it, but didn’t want to fully emulate Cupertino’s model.

“I really don’t want to go after parents who are sitting and waiting to pick their kids up from school,” she said. “I don’t have any interest in that, at all.”

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Matt Foulkes, Buena Park’s community and economic development director, told the council members that if they wanted to craft their own law, they would have to define “idling” while also determining exemptions for issues like emergency vehicles or drivers keeping the air conditioning on to prevent a health hazard on a blistering hot day.

Foulkes also said that state law already prohibits commercial vehicles weighing more than 10,000 pounds from idling after five minutes.

“Any delivery truck is going to exceed that [weight],” he said.

Sonne backtracked on pursuing an anti-idling law after learning about existing state law, as she felt more awareness of it could directly address the complaints of her constituents.

Councilmember Connor Traut also highlighted complaints about commercial trucks aired at a recent council meeting and asked what the city would inform residents to do.

“Obviously, it’s not [call] 911, but [should they call] non-emergency line to report excessive idling by large trucks?” he asked.

Foulkes responded that residents can call the police department’s non-emergency line or code enforcement during working hours.

“If there are specific businesses or specific residents that you guys have in mind, we would do a very directed enforcement,” he said to Sonne and Traut. “And then we can kind of spot check around the city where we have similar situations, where those residents might be having those same frustrations, but just might not have brought it to an elected official’s attention.”

Buena Park Mayor Joyce Ahn asked that information about the state law prohibiting idling and what numbers to call be placed on the city’s website.

“That sounds more targeted and effective,” she said.