Fight over gravel trucks could wind up in court

Steve Sebelius

Thursday, April 18, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

The City Council has halted gravel trucks on Alexander Road during evening and night hours, but a court fight could bring back the noise and dirt.

The council Wednesday voted to ban the trucks between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. because of chronic neighborhood complaints over noise, air pollution, safety and traffic congestion.

A Nevada Ready Mix attorney objected, saying the limits will torpedo business.

Alexander and portions of Tenaya Way and Craig Road serve as the only officially designated gravel haul route for the city, and trucks going to and from northwest gravel pits drive the stretch at all hours.

A city survey over a 24-hour period in March showed 1,176 trucks, 99 of which ran between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

"They're clearly entitled to operate during reasonable hours," said Councilman Matthew Callister, who represents the area. "The city has the right to regulate the use of streets."

But William Stoddard, attorney for Nevada Ready Mix, said the move is unconstitutional.

"That's a 14-hour period where we can't drive trucks anywhere up to our pit," Stoddard said. "It will be impossible for us to supply the aggregate concrete for the contracts that we have. Absolutely impossible."

Stoddard admitted trucks have to travel at all hours to supply concrete for projects including the new Bellagio hotel-casino on the Strip, but said neighbors were told that Alexander was the gravel haul route when they purchased their homes.

The road was built by Nevada Ready Mix in 1987, before any homes were constructed in the area.

Stoddard said Nevada Ready Mix trucks could use the Las Vegas Beltway when it's finished, but its construction is years away and the subject of an ongoing fight between the city and the county. Question 10 transportation funds, controlled by Clark County, are being used to build the southern leg of the beltway instead of the northwest segment.

"We seem to be the pawn in the hands of the city to get back at the county," Stoddard said.

Since there is no other route that Nevada Ready Mix can use, the city regulation unlawfully interferes with business, added Stoddard, who delivered a letter to the council with court decisions supporting his position.

In a California case, a court held that a city cannot "make itself an island through which ordinary traffic (including heavy trucks) may not pass." And in an Ohio case, courts ruled that even nighttime restrictions on the only route available to trucks to get to a business were "an unreasonable and arbitrary exercise of police power and a violation of constitutional rights."

But Callister said the company does have other options: "They can do what they said they would do and buy more trucks," he said.