396,000-square-foot warehouse project in Moreno Valley blocked by judge – Press Enterprise

The fight to stop new Inland Empire warehouses can feel like a losing struggle for activists.

But environmental justice advocates had reason to celebrate Monday, Oct. 23 as they gathered outside Moreno Valley City Hall to praise a court ruling that, at least for now, blocks development of 18 acres next door into 396,000 square feet of logistics space.

The Sierra Club and Jurupa Valley-based Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice sued to stop construction of the Compass Danbe Centerpointe project. The Oct. 16 ruling by Riverside Superior Court Judge Chad Firetag sets aside Moreno Valley’s approval of environmental findings needed for the project to move forward.

“We are very proud (of) the outcome and we are just here celebrating and sending a message to those developers and local elected officials that don’t listen to (the) community and don’t have the community’s best interests at heart,” center Executive Director Ana Gonzalez said.

Marla Matime, president of the center’s board, called the ruling “a huge win for the Inland Empire.”

“Our lungs are not for sale and families deserve to live and thrive in their communities without constant pollutants that threaten our livelihoods,” Matime said, adding she hopes the rule “is a standard for unwanted (warehouse) projects moving forward.”

Stanley King, chair of the Sierra Club’s Moreno Valley Group, accused Moreno Valley’s leadership and city staff of favoring developers over their constituents.

“We hope that the City Council after this …  will change their ways and start to realize the effect all this has on our community,” King said.

It’s up to the developer to determine whether to move forward with the project, Moreno Valley City Attorney Steve Quintanilla said via email.

The ruling “does not necessarily kill the project” because the developer can seek re-approval “consistent with the court’s opinion and any guidance it provides in the ruling,” Quintanilla said, adding the developer covered the city’s legal costs in the case.

The project’s developer, Compass Danbe Real Estate Partners, could not be reached for comment Monday.

In 2021, Mark Bachli of the partnership argued the project was fine-tuned repeatedly over more than a year before it was brought to the Moreno Valley Planning Commission.

At the time, Bachli said his partnership reached out to the Sierra Club and modeled its mitigation measures on a legal settlement between environmental groups and the developer of the World Logistics Center complex being developed in Moreno Valley.

The Centerpointe project is proposed for an 18-acre site on the south side of Alessandro Boulevard between Frederick and Graham streets, directly across from single-family homes and apartment buildings. It would consist of two buildings, one being 295,236 square feet and the other being 101,252 square feet.

The Planning Commission approved the project in August 2021, with the City Council approving it in February 2022. The plaintiffs filed suit that same month.

In his ruling, Firetag sided with plaintiffs’ arguments that poked holes in the project’s environmental reviews and raised concerns about what the warehouses would mean for local air quality and truck traffic.

“Unless the (project’s) impacts can be adequately mitigated so there is no significant impact on the environment, further (environmental) review is warranted,” the judge wrote in his 17-page ruling.

In the past 20 years, the Inland Empire became ground zero for a logistics boom that’s transformed the region into a landscape of sleek-walled warehouses, many 1 million square feet or more, that are supplied by seemingly nonstop convoys of 18-wheelers and freight trains.

Logistics provides an economic backbone credited with employing thousands and helping the Inland Empire quickly recover from the COVID-19 economic downturn. But critics said the economic boost comes at a cost to public health, with diesel emissions from warehouse-bound trucks linked to cancer, asthma and other health problems.

Despite the ruling, Gonzalez said fighting new warehouses is an uphill battle “because we don’t have the same amount of money to litigate every single project. Unfortunately, some go through the cracks.

“But when we have the support, like (from) the Sierra Club and other community groups, then that’s when we address those warehouses that are most harmful that are the closest to schools and residential areas,” she said.

“It’s a huge battle. But we’re here and we’re not giving up and we’re going to continue to fight for the health of our communities.”