San Benito County community upset over proposed truck stop

SAN BENITO COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV) -- San Benito County supervisors met Tuesday to discuss a controversial proposed truck stop at Highway 129 and Searles Road near Anzar High School.

Outside of San Benito County Administration Building, protestors came out with signs hoping for the board of supervisor uphold the recently voted on Measure A which is projected to pass with a 54% of yes votes.

That measure would allow voters to have a say in in changes made to agricultural or rural land use to other uses including commercial uses

The proposed truck stop would be here off Highway 129 and so road well over 100 semi truck bays for those passing through.

The stop will also feature 16,000-plus square foot convenience store along with a truck service and cold storage buildings.

That truck stop would be nearby neighboring anzar high school, which is a cause of concern for some.

"We don't even know what those impacts would be except that we can be pretty sure that some of them would be very negative, like students getting over to the truck stop and having, you know, issues with, to tell you the truth, drugs and cross the tuition," retired teacher Peter G. Carolyn said. "And, you know, nobody wants to see that at high school students that kind of, you know, crisis happening there.”

Christine Kemp an attorney whose specializes in land use spoke on the project.

"One is that it's a very, very large project, maybe the largest stop in California. It needs to go to a proper environmental review with an environmental impact report and have all the mitigations and issues analyzed before it's approved," Kemp said.

Supervisor Kollin Kosmicki posted on Facebook stating the project is attempting to circumvent measure a.

The proposal was denied a development agreement from the Planning Commission back in september, but is being presented to the board for an appeal.

Another project, the Betabel Road Project, was discussed alongside the truck stop which was also a cause of concern due to traffic complaints - a point which was argued against by some drivers.

“I drove by Betelbel this morning. There is very little traffic there. I drove it for twenty years as a commuter. The traffic does not slow down there," San Benito resident John Freeman said.

We have reached out to the ad hoc committee proposing the truck stop and have yet to hear back from them.