Massachusetts Landscape Contractor Claims City Targeted Him with Truck Ban

A Haverhill, Mass. landscape contractor is suing the city, saying he will be put out of business by a new law that effectively bans him from driving work vehicles in his neighborhood.

An ordinance passed by the City Council and signed by Mayor James Fiorentini on Aug. 20 prohibits commercial vehicles weighing more than 3 tons from operating on Fairmount and Newton avenues. Leonard Russo of 20 Fairmount Ave. runs Russo Earth Care from three properties in the area; one of them is his home.

The prohibition will effectively force him out of the neighborhood, Russo says.

Russo has filed a lawsuit in Lawrence Superior Court and wants a judge to nullify the law. "Russo will suffer irreparable damage by being forced to discontinue his landscaping business" in the neighborhood, the lawsuit claims.

Russo's suit is the latest round in a neighborhood battle that has gone on for about three years.

Seven neighbors petitioned the City Council this summer to enact the truck law because they did not want Russo running a business from the area, which is zoned residential and is near Whittier Middle School. The neighbors complain that the trucks and equipment are loud, emit fumes and are dangerous to pedestrians.

Russo said in the lawsuit that his family has been running commercial businesses at those locations since the 1950s and he should not be forced out. The neighbors contend his operation has grown too big and needs to move to a commercial area.

The lawsuit asks for a temporary injunction to prevent enforcement of the law until the issue can be fully decided by a court at a later date.

The temporary injunction hearing is Sept. 20. Fiorentini said the city has agreed not to enforce the new law until the hearing.

In the lawsuit filed by Russo's lawyer, Anthony Metaxas, Russo said he runs the business from three properties he owns - his home at 20 Fairmount Ave., and 20 and 38 Newton Ave. Newton Avenue is a short, dead-end street leading to playing fields behind Whittier Middle School.

The lawsuit says the new law should be nullified because it targets an individual, making it an unconstitutional act.

Russo also complains that the city councilor who pushed the issue, David Hall, used his power as an elected official to help his friend Joseph Spero, a neighbor who signed the petition. Spero and Hall are retired Haverhill police officers and worked together for decades.

"Hall acted in bad faith," the lawsuit says.

Hall said he has given Russo and his lawyers the opportunity to speak and work with him on the issue.

"I am totally dedicated to the neighborhood and not any individual," Hall said. "Joe Spero and I are friends, but that is not the issue up there."

Russo wants the judge to declare the law void, and the city to declare that his conduct and business are lawful. He also wants an unspecified financial award for damages and lawyer costs.

"The law was arbitrary and capricious and beyond the authority of the city," the lawsuit says.

The mayor, who lives nearby on Macon Avenue, said he has spoken with Russo and offered the city's help to move him to a suitable commercial property.

The city ordered Russo to "cease and desist" his business in February, but Russo continued because he believed his business has so-called "grandfather" status because it has been there so long.

Calls to Russo and City Solicitor William Cox for comments for this story were not returned.