Alachua County commissioners order no‑truck signage, ask staff to clear code and enforcement gaps

Alachua County commissioners voted Jan. 7 to install no‑commercial‑vehicle‑parking signs at locations where long‑term truck parking has drawn repeated complaints and to ask staff to bring back code revisions to make enforcement easier.

The move follows a staff presentation and multiple commissioners’ accounts of semis and box trucks that stop or remain for extended periods in county rights of way, including along Southeast 35th Street and near the Spring Hill Publix. "We have had some reports from the community in a couple of areas about commercial vehicles being parked in the right of way," said Chris Dawson, principal planner for Development Services at Alachua County Growth Management. Dawson described examples he had photographed and said some vehicles had expired tags or had been sitting for long periods.

County staff and commissioners said two problems limit enforcement: (1) the county’s land development code contains an older provision that broadly prohibits parking in rights of way but is inconsistent with state statute and with other county rules that authorize marked on‑street parking; and (2) the sheriff’s office enforces activity in rights of way while county code enforcement enforces on…