The City of Fresno is concluding its truck route study, which outlines what roads heavy trucks can drive on in south Fresno.
City officials believe it could be a solution in the ongoing battle between environmental groups and industrial interests, while the two sides see only a bevy of complications.
Driving the news: The city is aiming to limit the health impacts of trucks in south Fresno and comply with Assembly Bill 617.
- Former Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 617 into law in 2017, which requires local air districts to protect communities impacted by air pollution.
The big picture: The study proposes large “regulated areas” that dictate where trucks should and should not drive to control unnecessary trips that add to pollution. The plan is also aimed at limiting heavy truck traffic in residential areas.
- The Fresno City Council authorized $52,670 last week to add three additional workshops and marketing materials to help market the AB 617 Community Truck Reroute Study. The additional funding brings the contract total to $302,670.
- Fresno’s new truck route map would eliminate any shortcuts that trucks may take in south Fresno to keep trucks on major routes and out of neighborhoods, only allowing them to be in regulated areas if they have business there.
- GV Wire reported that the new map should be released by August.
Go deeper: South Fresno’s Elm Ave. business park has taken center stage at City Hall regarding just how business friendly the city is.
- Attorney John Kinsey, who represents the landlords and business owners on Elm Ave., wrote to the city last week fearing that the restricted areas for the new truck routes could harm future development.
- “My clients are concerned that the lack of a Truck Route adjacent to or near their properties and their location in a Truck Regulated Area will be used in the future by project opponents, the City, and other public agencies to assert that affected landowners and businesses should be denied discretionary approvals,” Kinsey wrote, according to GV Wire.
