Truckers and their supporters gathered Monday to protest a proposed neighborhood truck parking ban that may change their way of life.
The protesters are residents of Loxahatchee and The Acreage, Florida – an area that is looking to prevent truckers from parking their rigs on their own property even though they’ve been doing so for over a decade. The demonstration took place on February 19th, just before the Palm Beach County commissioners vote on the ordinance on Thursday, February 22nd.
Roberto Barrabi says his two dump trucks are how he makes a living, and stopping him from parking them on his property would affect not only his bottom line, but his way of life, and may even force him to move, reported WPTV.
“That’s the only way I got to make a living and bring food to our table,” he said of his trucks. “That’s why I moved here first thing to have everything at my house so I got more time for my family.”
Barrabi says he has been living and parking in the neighborhood for 16 years, but he may have to move if the new ordinance is passed.
Residents looking to ban the trucks say that the trucks “bother them,” and that the rigs just don’t belong in the neighborhood.
“I just don’t think that, you know, this is the area for them,” said resident Carolyn Abbey. “I’m not against their industry. I feel that we should have a lot somewhere, and it will not bother our traffic and our roads and our beautiful equestrian place that we live in.”
Commissioner Sarah Baxter has been working to support the resident truckers and presented a compromise which will be voted on during the Thursday vote. The compromise rule would allow residents to park two vehicles over 16,000 pounds on their property as long as their driveway is at least 24 feet wide and the trucks are only operated within certain hours.
“Sara Baxter is the most wonderful commissioner we’ve ever had representing us out here,” Sharon Waite, a resident in support of the truckers. “She’s the only one that’s ever lifted her finger in the 28 years I’ve been here that’s ever done anything for us.”
“I have a lot of trucker neighbors. They’re all in the same boat. They don’t know where they’re going,” said Jorge Garcia, another resident in support of the truckers. “My message is anything they have comes in a truck. If they eat, it came in a truck. If they shower, their soap came in a truck. If they take us all out of here, where are they going to go get their stuff?”