LAUREL HILL — Several council members and a former mayor question Councilman Daniel Lane’s proposal to add vehicle weight restrictions on city streets.
Lane has proposed posting 10 signs at entry points to city roads, declaring weight limits between 10,000 and 15,000 pounds. The goal is to prevent heavy vehicles from damaging newly repaved streets.
Delivery trucks could use the streets, but they would have to use the most direct routes from State Road 85 to their destinations and back, Lane said.
Councilwoman Debra Adams, who supports the measure, said 18-wheelers sometimes cut through city streets to shorten the distance through town.
But, Councilman Scott Moneypenny said Feb. 4, the weight restrictions would be “unenforceable unless you got (Florida Department of Transportation) out with their scales to enforce it.”
“I don't see if there's anything tangible or enforceable at all,” Councilman Travis Dewrell said. “And it shouldn't apply to residents who drive semis who are going to or from their homes. In no way, shape or form would I want to limit a resident from using the property they own in the city.”
Resident Kathleen Moneypenny, Scott Moneypenny’s wife, said posting weight restrictions might discourage businesses from moving into the city’s New Ebenezer Road industrial park.
“You would have to exempt school buses, county dump trucks, farm equipment,” former Mayor Joan Smith said. “You'd have a sign that's a 4 (foot) by 8 (foot) sheet just to show the exemptions.”
“It's basically unenforceable,” Council President Larry Hendren said.
Lane said he will continue to research other communities’ road weight restrictions and present further information at a future council meeting.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Laurel Hill proposal to limit vehicles' weight gets pushback (VIDEO)