Board Backs Massive Warehouse Project In Cherry Valley Despite Community Objections [UPDATED]

CHERRY VALLEY, CA — After months, and in some cases years, of pushback by community members on a proposal to bring a massive warehouse project to the San Gorgonio Pass, county supervisors on Tuesday gave the project a green light. The mega warehouse planned on the west end of Cherry Valley was tentatively approved on a 4-1 vote by the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, over the objections of hundreds of Riverside County residents who denounced the project for its threat to air quality and rural peace.

The "high cube" project, originally known as the Gateway Warehouse but now dubbed the San Gorgonio Crossing, would entail erecting two industrial buildings with 306 truck bays, occupying 1.8 million square feet on 140 acres a quarter-mile east of Interstate 10, north of Cherry Valley Boulevard and south of Condit Avenue. Some of the project space would be reserved for nature trails and rustic features intended to make it less of an eyesore, according to planning documents.

An EIR was first issued in November 2016 but was sent back for revisions that Department of Planning officials said were needed to address modifications by the developer, resulting in a re-circulated draft EIR totaling 2,846 pages. The document elicited more than 700 letters in opposition.

Still, county officials pushed the project forward Tuesday.

"It's clear to me this project deserves approval," said Supervisor Marion Ashley, in whose Fifth District the mega warehouse complex will be located. "The region could greatly benefit from it."

The tentative approval of an environmental impact report and zoning changes for the San Gorgonio Crossing came at the end of a second public hearing on the 230-acre development. The first hearing was on Oct. 3, during which nearly 50 people spoke against it, followed by less than a dozen in support.

No members of the public were permitted an opportunity to address the board during Tuesday afternoon's special session. Only developer William Shopoff, the supervisors and county staff spoke.

"Just because a warehouse can be built, doesn't mean it should be," said Supervisor Kevin Jeffries, who cast the sole vote in opposition. "The location for this warehouse is today a very beautiful area, and it will never be recaptured or recover after this (is built). As I've said previously, I don't want Riverside County to become the warehouse capital of Southern California. We are grossly losing the battle in this county on traffic. Approving more and more ... warehouses or whatever -- we've reached the limit on what we can handle."

Ashley lauded the modifications Shopoff put forward to make the warehouse complex a better fit for the community, including road improvements and enhanced green space around the project site.

Shopoff told the board that he's in the process of closing a deal to purchase 122 acres abutting the development to make room for parks.

An air quality mitigation fund will be established, generating up to $575,000 a year, to offset polluting activity associated with the San Gorgonio Crossing, according to county Transportation & Land Management Agency Director Juan Perez.

Economist John Husing told the board the warehouse space, depending on its uses, could net anywhere from 500 to 1,600 permanent jobs.

"This could have a total economic benefit of $150 million a year," Ashley said.

Supervisor Chuck Washington said he was "torn" over the project, likening the experience to what he and other Temecula Valley residents went through challenging the proposed Liberty Quarry strip mine more than five years ago. However, Washington said he had "faith" that Ashley's position was the correct one.

Board Chairman John Tavaglione expressed confidence that "reasonable mitigation" measures were built into the project and said he was comfortable with it, as was Supervisor Manuel Perez, who deferred to Ashley's judgment.

The vote was met by denunciations from the dozens gathered for the meeting. One woman shouted "You ought to be hung!"

At the Oct. 3 meeting, Beaumont Mayor Lloyd White argued the "air quality and traffic impacts" could not be adequately addressed and would pose ongoing hazards for residents of his city, Cherry Valley and Calimesa.
"Please recognize this project does not belong in the hills of Cherry Valley," he said. "Our residents want to keep the open space and the small town neighborhoods that attracted them to the San Gorgonio Pass."

A retiree, Len Jenkins, expressed dread that the thousand or more tractor-trailers coming and going from San Gorgonio Crossing daily would put his asthmatic wife's health in danger.

"You'd be putting in some kind of death decree by approving this," Jenkins said.

Other property owners feared heavy congestion on Cherry Valley Boulevard and surrounding roads, while many wondered about potential impacts to wildlife habitat, storm drains and scenic vistas in the unincorporated community.

Multiple environmental groups, led by the Sierra Club, also condemned the project.

The club submitted a letter listing numerous objections, beginning with the inevitable degradation to air quality from the estimated 1,200 daily truck trips to and from the site, in addition to the idling, parking and docking time when tractor-trailers will be in motion, spewing pollutants.

The organization further argued that there was no way to justify re- designating the project zone area as "light industrial," rather than retaining the "very light rural residential" designation, when all existing structures in the vicinity, including hundreds of retirement homes, have been authorized under a general plan that envisioned non-business uses.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District worried about the volume of pollution and greenhouse gases associated with the warehousing complex, saying they "would be significant and unavoidable after mitigation."

According to the EIR authors, most environmental impacts other than air quality and traffic congestion can be substantially mitigated at the outset.

The EIR and zoning changes are slated to be formally approved by the board before the end of the year.

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With reporting by PAUL J. YOUNG, City News Service / Image via Economic Impact of San Gorgonio Crossing report