Stanislaus OKs truck parking facilities as it tries to limit farmland conversion
Two truck parking facilities received approval Tuesday from Stanislaus County supervisors after they were found to be consistent with new regulations to reduce truck parking in agricultural areas.
The board approved a general plan amendment legalizing a truck parking yard in the 4300 block of West Taylor Road, between Highway 99 and North Washington Road near Turlock. The rezone will allow Pattar Trucking an 80-space parking facility on 10 acres with a shop for light maintenance and an administrative office.
Supervisors also approved a 40-space truck parking facility in the 1000 block of Welty Road near Highway 33 in Vernalis. Atwal Properties will convert four acres of a 23-acre orchard parcel for the facility, which will operate six days a week.
The Board of Supervisors postponed decisions on the two faciliites for nine months to provide time for a committee to study the parking needs of trucking firms and increasing complaints about illegal parking in unincorporated areas. The complaints include conversion of farmland, road damage, air pollution, noise and toxic spills that pollute the ground.
The committee released proposed amendments to a 2012 ordinance in July. The new rules are designed to prevent an overconcentration of parking facilities in the county jurisdiction and impose regulations on permitted facilities.
The county Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors could approve the amendments in the next few months.
The Pattar facility is consistent with the proposed regulations because it’s near a state highway and won’t result in more than two parking sites in a one-mile radius, county staff said. There are unpermitted sites within a mile, but those are not factored into the concentration evaluation. Code enforcement actions are working to eliminate the illegal sites.
The Pattar facility is bordered by farmland, which was a strike against it, but permit conditions require frontage improvements, landscaping and surfacing to limit dust and groundwater impacts.
Supervisor Vito Chiesa and Planning Commission Chairwoman Carmen Morad are on the committee that developed the new regulations. “The (Pattar Trucking) location is good, as we are trying to put them close to the freeway,” Chiesa said. “I don’t like that it’s under code enforcement but the location is exactly what I envisioned.”
The Atwal property, also close to a highway, exceeded the 10-acre limit in amendments, but only four acres will be converted for parking trucks.