Brocton trucking dispute is not yet resolved
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BROCTON -- A dispute between Brocton residents and a limited liability company, Z&YY Trucking, is still ongoing.
Legal counsel is involved on both sides of the dispute, as residents complain about the excessive noise, safety concerns, and impact of the company on property values, while the business owners claim they are simply parking their trucks at home.
Zayly Heyliger and Luis Alvarez Vega reside at 113 E. Main St. in the village. Their residence is listed online as the address for the trucking company, Z&YY Trucking LLC. The property is located at the top of a hill as Route 20 enters the village onto Main Street.
Heyliger and Alvarez Vega have retained Richard Morrisroe of VanDette Law to represent their interests in the dispute with their neighbors. The issue was first reported in the OBSERVER in August.
The village served Heyliger and Alvarez Vega with violation notices regarding heavy vehicle parking, the presence of a fuel tank, and rubbish or garbage accumulation. Morrisroe responded to all three violations in a letter addressed to Clark.
"Looks can be deceiving," Morrisroe stated. "And the situation is not as 'complex' as reported in the OBSERVER."
Z&YY Trucking LLC has been in business since 2018. The trucks haul materials, often produced from local farms to processors. Morrisroe stated the Main Street property is not a retail shop, a mechanics' shop, or a trucking terminal for an intrastate trucking operation.
Residents, however, feel that the site has gotten out of hand, including five semi trucks, significant maintenance work, a 40- by 60-foot garage building, and a fuel tank with no protection. Residents claim that maintenance of the trucks takes place at all hours of the day, with loud noises often causing a disturbance.
In August, the Village Board and other village officials were pressed for answers as to why the business is permitted to operate in a residential neighborhood. Code Enforcement Officer Josh Dobbs defined the matter as a "complex situation."
Morrisroe disagrees.
Morrisroe stated that the property itself is made up of two parcels of land -- one zoned as a residential, single family home, and another zoned as residential vacant land. Combined, they equal roughly 1.5 acres. When the parcels are combined, the fuel tank violation for being located on a property of less than an acre is invalid. Morrisroe also stated the fuel tank "is currently empty and has not been in use for over a year."
Morrisroe also objected to claims that 4-5 trucks are parked on the property, instead claiming that only two are parked on site. He stated that the vehicles are parked on the opposite side of the home, estimated at "roughly three to four times the minimum 150 feet required from the nearest adjacent residence located at 117 E. Main Street."
The accumulation of used truck tires has since been remedied with removal of said tires. Morrisroe stated, "That resolves the third apparent code violation."
Heyliger and Alvarez Vega have lived at 113 E. Main Street since 2019.
"Their children attend Brocton schools and they pay their taxes," Morrisroe stated. "They are good neighbors."
Morrisroe claims that over the past seven years, trucks have been occasionally fueled or worked on from home. He stated, "113 E. Main is their home, pure and simple. I challenge the resident complainants to both define a full-blown trucking operation and prove that is occurring at this home."
At the village's September meeting, Village Attorney Peter Clark responded to a resident's complaints regarding the property during the public comment portion of the meeting. Clark said that he and the code enforcement officer will "see what we have to do to make them comply with the law."
Clark assured the Board and two residents who spoke on the matter, "We're not ignoring that. The village is trying to get them to comply. We'll get them to comply, one way or another. It just takes a little bit of time. There's a process it's got to go through."