A bill regulating warehouses – especially in the Inland Empire – has landed on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. But environmentalists and community activists aren’t supporting it saying it was watered down in secret at the last minute.
AB 98 passed the legislature on Aug. 31, the last day of the session. The bill requires, among other things, that new warehouses be located on major commercial roads; that they be set back at least 900 feet near schools, houses, and other “sensitive receptors” and that they bet set back at least 500 feet in the Inland Empire whether or not sensitive receptors are nearby. Houses demolished for warehouses must be replaced on a 2-to-1 basis and the law does not override the California Environmental Quality Act, which both environmental justice advocates and Attorney General Rob Bonta have used to challenge new warehouses in both the Inland Empire and the Central Valley.
In the Los Angeles Times, Andrea Vidaurre of the People’s Collective for Environmental Justice in San Bernardino called the bill “business as usual,” while Assemblymember Eloise Gomez Reyes (D-Colton), another co-author, one of the co-authors, said AB 98 is “not the perfect bill.”
Opposition to warehouses, especially in the Inland Empire, has been brewing for several years. Earlier this year, CP&DR reported that two bills were pending in the legislature that would regulate warehouses, which would have imposed similar distance restrictions from schools, homes, and other sensitive receptors. But it did not seem as though a bill would move forward this year.
According to The Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability, there are just over 9,000 warehouses in Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernadino Counties--with nearly another 300 planned and approved to be built by 2025. Combined, these warehouses host about 475,000 jobs, but claim nearly 60,000 acres and generate more than 1,300 pounds of diesel particulate matter and 40,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide every day.
Because of the economic benefits and environmental impacts, the warehouse issue required legislative leaders to thread a delicate needle between labor groups on the one hand and environmental justice groups on the other. The labor groups are perceived to have won this round.
Lately, the logistics industry has not done much to burnish its reputation in the region. Amazon, which has an enormous presence in the Inland Empire, has wielded some unfriendly tactics, such as refusing to donate to local charities, according to recent reporting by the Los Angeles Times. Separate reporting by the L.A. Times reveals that the South Coast Air Quality Management district has imposed over 100 violation notices since new regulations were adopted in 2021, citing warehouses and carriers for a range of transgressions; an estimated 400 more warehouses may be out of compliance.
Attorney General Rob Bonta has been active in challenging warehouse projects. In 2022 he sued the City of Fontana and subsequently settled the case, requiring site designs to keep trucks away from nearby sensitive sites, as well as using zero-emission vehicles for on-site operations, solar panels, and a $210,000 community benefit fund.
Later that year, Bonta settled a lawsuit with the City of Stockton, requiring similar conditions on a warehouse project there and requiring the city to adopt a comprehensive warehouse ordinance. Stockton approved the ordinance the following year.
