HIGHLAND | About a dozen Boulevard Estates residents say they are pleased the Town Council has said a nearby property owner can no longer let semitrailers park overnight on his land.

The land must be free of parked semis by June 30.

Ken Scheeringa said his late mother, Grace, had rented the rear portion of her property to let the truck drivers park their vehicles. The land sits along Ernie Strack Boulevard just behind the Strack & Van Til grocery complex.

Unofficially dubbed the "Highland Truck Stop," the parking lot was a nonconforming use of the land that Scheeringa said had been going on for more than 25 years.

During a lengthy public discussion before the vote, resident Jerri Savin asked how the practice was allowed to start in the first place.

"It happened a long, long time ago," board attorney Rhett Tauber noted.

When the previous council learned that the number of parked semis had grown to about 16, it sought to end the practice. Last year, the council made an agreement with the elderly Grace Scheeringa to allow the parking to continue for the rest of her life, after which it would have to stop.

When she died last month, Ken Scheeringa requested the parking be allowed to continue at least until the end of the year.

"When we throw them out of here, where are they going to go?" he asked. Scheeringa then answered his own question by saying they would have to go to a truck stop on Burr Street in Gary.

He also said half of the drivers are Highland residents trying to make a living.

But the residents said the parked trucks are an eyesore and want them out of their area.

The council voted 3-0 to close the parking lot, with Vice President Konnie Kuiper, Highland First Coalition-5th, abstaining because of a past association with the Scheeringas. Mark Herak, Highland First Coalition-2nd, was out of town on business.