Trucking Firm Drops Attempt to Relocate Storage Facility

MOORPARK — Just as residents at Wednesday’s City Council meeting prepared to battle a proposed truck storage facility, proponents of the plan surrendered.

In a letter delivered to the council shortly before the meeting, a consultant representing Shenkel Trucking Inc. withdrew the company’s application to move its storage facility temporarily to a parcel just 200 feet from homes in the Virginia Colony neighborhood.

The owners believe city staff members were treating the proposal unfairly, consultant John Newton wrote. A staff report “has fueled flames of political discontent to the degree that facts or reason cannot possibly prevail,” he wrote.

The company will instead ask the city to allow it to remain at its current site by granting a zone change to allow industrial use of its land, now designated for homes.

Residents who attended the meeting were exultant.

“I knew it wasn’t going to go through,” said Virginia Colony resident Ray Aguirre, 66. “I had a feeling . . . they’re crowding us, that’s why we didn’t want it. We can’t stop progress, but let’s divide the projects around the city, not just in our location.”

Company owners sought to park their 22 trucks and trailers on the parcel, now covered by shrubbery. The owners had wanted to stay at least a year to allow them time to find a permanent site.

The trucking company’s operation has drawn a number of noise and traffic complaints from residents at previous sites, the first at A-C Construction Corp. property off Spring Road and the latest at a Crawford Canyon lot just west of the Moorpark Freeway.

While the company is now situated at the Crawford Canyon facility, the area is zoned for residential, not commercial use.