Officials defend truck limits

KEYSTONE -- It's not perfect. It could use a tuneup. But the Hillsborough County Commission is not about to throw out a plan that regulates trucks on rural roads.

Instead, the commission is exploring special exceptions.

"Set up some kind of variance review for hardship cases," suggested Steve Morris, president of Keystone Civic Association. "But don't throw the baby out with the bath water."

Hardship cases prompted county transportation official Bill McCall to ask commissioners on Tuesday to modify the truck route plan. In northwest Hillsborough, that plan governs truck traffic on Tarpon Springs and Van Dyke Roads, Dale Mabry Highway, Veterans Expressway and the Suncoast Parkway.

McCall said the 7-year-old plan was not working and was, in many cases, causing truckers to go miles out of their way.

One extreme example cited was an excavation site on Morris Bridge Road, less than half a mile into Pasco County that, because of a circuitous trucking rule, requires truckers to make a 25-mile trip for a job located a half mile away.

McCall asked county commissioners to once again allow trucks to access all county roads -- instead of the roughly 50 percent they are now limited to -- but with controls.

Those conditions included requiring truckers to go directly to their destinations, for example. And when leaving those destinations, truckers would be required to return on the same route.

But the commissioners were not swayed.

"We worked hard and took heat to develop a truck route to protect neighborhoods," said Commissioner Jan Platt. "I view this as a substantial weakening of the truck route."

The rule also prohibited trucks from using the 2 miles between Tarpon Springs Road and the Pasco County line once the Suncoast Parkway was opened. "We've gotten telephone calls from people thanking us because there has been a decrease in traffic, and it's been good," Morris said.

Keystone residents' complaints about noise and traffic along the Veterans Expressway construction sites helped push the truck route plan through in the first place.

County commissioners also were asked to look at the routes in the Brandon area and agreed to remove Boyette Road and Bell Shoals Road from the truck route because leaving them in, they reasoned, caused harm to the neighborhood and removing them would affect only a small percentage of truckers. That portion of McCall's request passed 5-1 with Platt dissenting.

- Jackie Ripley can be reached at (813) 269-5308.

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