Five years after the project was first approved, a majority of the Moreno Valley City Council has again given its consent on what has been called the world’s largest warehouse complex.
On Tuesday, June 16, by a 3-1-1 vote, with Ulises Cabrera voting “no,” and David Marquez abstaining, the council approved a revised Environmental Impact Report for the proposed World Logistics Center.
The proposed 40.6 million-square-foot warehouse complex has been controversial since it was first proposed in 2012 and has been tied up in legal challenges for years. Tuesday night’s approval of a revised Environmental Impact Report follows a judge throwing out the original one in 2018, when she found it to be incomplete.
The new report, filed May 1, is thousands of pages long, and intended to address the center’s likely energy, biological, noise, agricultural and cumulative impacts on the area. When completed, the World Logistics Center would cover an area equal to about 700 football fields — about 10% of the land in the city. The warehouse complex would be south of the 60 Freeway, between Redlands Boulevard and Gilman Springs Road at Moreno Valley’s eastern boundary.
To offset these impacts, developer Highland Fairview intends to buy carbon offset credits, under California’s cap-and-trade program. The purchase would offset vehicle emissions and make the project — on paper — produce zero greenhouse gases. The project also will have to meet required levels of waste recycling, will feature electric vehicle charging stations, use solar panels and various energy conservation measures.
Adrian Martinez, attorney for Earthjustice, on Tuesday called the project’s heavy use of carbon offset credits “patently unlawful.” Earthjustice is the environmental group that represented the coalition of local groups that got the original report thrown out in court.
Eight years after the World Logistics Center was first proposed, area residents have strong opinions on the proposed project.
“These jobs are needed,” said Mike Dea. “We’ve had hundreds of thousands of layoffs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Moreno Valley had a 14.8% unemployment rate in April, according to California Employment Development Department estimates. That’s up 9% over March’s revised numbers. In April, Riverside County had a 15.3% unemployment rate and California as a whole had a 16.1% unemployment rate.
“Unemployment in Moreno Valley is high and rising quickly due to the pandemic,” said Moreno Valley resident Eunice Kang. “The World Logistics Center can be instrumental in getting our local economy moving again, with the creation of thousands of jobs.”
“You guys all know what to do,” said Art Velador. “Let’s get this going and let’s get to work.”
The project also had its detractors Tuesday night.
“Just think of the WLC as COVID-19,” said Moreno Valley resident Keri Then. “After the WLC is built up, our lungs will look like a COVID-19 patient’s, struggling to breathe.”
Riverside County has the second-worst smog in the nation, according to an American Lung Association report released in April.
“Only 11% of the greenhouse gas will be mitigated locally,” said Andrea Vidaurre, with the Jurupa Valley-based Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice. “You’re leaving your residents breathing toxic pollution.”
The other 89% of air pollution attributed to the project is being reduced elsewhere in the world, through the carbon offset credits.
“My children have asthma and I want me and my husband to be able to live long enough to take care of them as long as we can,” said Moreno Valley resident Diana Valdez.
The council’s approval Tuesday night doesn’t mean the World Logistics Center will necessarily be opening any time soon, according to Eric Rose, a spokesperson for the project, due to “protracted and costly litigation.”
“These are the very same special interest groups that have been suing projects in California for decades,” Rose wrote in an email on Wednesday. “They have developed a business model out of litigating nearly every project of any significance under (the California Environmental Quality Act). They litigate housing, infrastructure, road projects, highways, public transportation, shopping centers, state agencies, schools, parks, anything.”
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June 18, 2020 at 08:50AM
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Moreno Valley council reaffirms its approval of World Logistics Center - Press-Enterprise
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