Palm Beach County Accused of ‘Rural Gentrification’ in Lawsuit

Two residents of The Acreage, an unincorporated part of Palm Beach County, Florida, have sued the county over its recent decision to ban semi-trucks from the neighborhood. “The lawsuit accuses the county of practicing ‘rural gentrification,’” by “seeking to attract white-collar residents into the region by slowly changing zoning ordinances to push out long-time blue-collar commercial residents” such as the plaintiffs, who park semis on their property,  says an article in The Palm Beach Post.

According to the county’s new zoning ordinance, residents with trucks weighing more than 8 tons (16,000 pounds) will have to relocate the vehicles by July 1. According to the Post, the move by county commissioners came in response to complaints by other residents that “the presence of the large trucks was threatening their lifestyles.” Proponents of the ban, including the road system operator and the The Acreage Landowners Association, argue that the road system was never designed to accommodate such heavy vehicles and that allowing them would increase road maintenance costs.

The semi owners who filed the lawsuit claim the requirement to park their trucks offsite will render their businesses unprofitable and effectively lower their property values and render their properties unusable for their intended purposes (as parking for their businesses’ vehicles).