Some Citrus Heights residents say big rigs are taking over city streets
CITRUS HEIGHTS - The city of Citrus Heights is taking new steps to ban big rig blight. Some people say that the trucks are taking over city streets.
Rigo Hernandez, who owns Horizon Smog, says big rig trucks are constantly parking for days in front of his smog shop.
"Some of my customers drive by and they can't see my business because they're blocking everything," said Hernandez.
He claims that at times it almost looks like a truck stop.
"At one time I've seen five in one day, there were three over here and two on the other side," he said.
Irlanda Meza, who works at Judi's Cleaners, says, "It's every single day we have at least one [truck]."
Chief Alex Turcotte of the Citrus Heights Police Department explains that property owners feel that the trucks are "kind of a visible blight, taking up customer parking but also not the best look to have abandoned trailers and things like that."
Now, city leaders are drafting new rules to prohibit commercial vehicles from parking on all city streets, which would include "large semi trucks, some of your larger panel vans, and for sure the bigger delivery trucks," according to Turcotte.
Scott Brown, a truck driver who lives in Citrus Heights, disagrees.
"We're not causing problems, we're just parking there at night. To solve this problem, I'd have to drive 30-40 minutes away to another town," said Brown.
The Citrus Heights City Council will take a final vote on the ban next month, and if approved, it would take effect in April. Violators would receive a $112 ticket. Hernandez says he has called the police department a couple of times and filed a complaint, but the trucks usually come back after a few days of being moved.