This petition, upon completion, will be presented to the appropriate City of San Jose agencies, the VTA authority, and the California Clean Air Resources Board for consideration and appropriate action.

What this petition is about: Across the street of our homes in the Monte Vista community resides a business called “Trucking School”. The location of the entity is at 740 W San Carlos Street. It is just 300 feet from our windows across the rail road. There are four semitrailers parked there. The school operates approximately 5-6 hours a day, 6 (and more often, 7) days per week.

What are our grievances? To begin with, we are not able to verify the zoning designation of this specific area based on the City of San Jose mapping. To our understanding, it is not clear if this is meant to be a residential or mixed used area.

1. The nuisance from this operation: The trucks are maneuvering back and forth in a closed area along the fence only 300 feet from us. One of the trucks is always stationary, charging hydraulics, testing brakes, and releasing air with a high pitched noise, idling and revving up for a long time. The configuration of high rise buildings is such that the echo resonates strongly and is really unbearable some times.

2. Safety concerns: The trucks are operated by inexperienced drivers. They are driving the vehicles just 30 feet from the railroad where the VTA line passes by. There are currently no engineered safety barriers of any kind to prevent these multi-ton machines from going out onto the tracks. At the very least, safety features must exist to absorb any impact in case someone loses control. The tragedy is unimaginable if a train with passengers and a truck would happen to collide.

3. The air quality: We live in a very densely populated area, especially now with condos located on both sides of the trucking school. Diesel fume emissions into the lower atmosphere are noticeable even to the naked eye. These old trucks are most likely not certified for clean idling and should not be allowed to be here. It goes without saying that this poses a significant health concern for all.

4. We live in a highly sought after and high-priced community, and we pay good money to enjoy our home and our life. This cannot be sustained when our surrounding environment is continuously being disrupted by these troublesome noises.

To summarize: Please help us to be able to verify the legitimacy of this business and its operating permits, confirm its allowed hours of operation, safety regulations and requirements, air quality norms and compliance, acceptable noise levels etc.

Sometimes regular citizens feel helpless in front of inconsiderate businesses and owners. Please, help us solve this troubling matter in a reasonable and timely matter.