Mega Logistics Center Planned For RivCo Gets Environmental OK

SAN GORGONIO PASS AREA, CA — After years of vetting, a massive warehouse and logistics center planned near Beaumont got final environmental approval Tuesday from the Riverside County Board of Supervisors.

In a 5-0 vote, the supervisors certified the final supplemental environmental impact report for the San Gorgonio Crossings Project. The project entails constructing 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.

The project and the initial environmental impact report were challenged in court by two environmental groups but in March 2019 a judge ruled in favor of project applicant Shopoff. However, the judge required the developer to submit a supplemental EIR to address solar and transportation energy concerns. Those two issues were tackled in the supplemental EIR and met with the supervisors' approval, marking the last remaining environmental hurdles for the project.

Although District 1 Supervisor Kevin Jeffries voted to certify the supplemental EIR, he has stood against the project, stating that the region does not need another mega warehouse. On Tuesday, he said he was only voting to certify the supplemental EIR because Shopoff satisfactorily followed the judge's order.

District 2 Supervisor and Board Vice Chair Karen Spiegel also expressed her dislike of the project, but like Jeffries voted to certify the supplemental EIR.

The mega warehouse was approved by the board's 4-1 vote in Oct. 2017 over the objections of hundreds of Riverside County residents who denounced the project for its threat to air quality and rural peace. Jeffries cast the lone dissenting vote.

An EIR for the project was first issued in November 2016 but was sent back for revisions that county 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.

"Just because a warehouse can be built, doesn't mean it should be," Jeffries said back in 2017. "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."

Then-Supervisor Marion 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.

During Tuesday's vote, Ashley turned out to show his support for the project again, saying it will bring an estimated $180 million in economic benefit to the Pass Area and more than 1,000 jobs.

Multiple environmental groups, led by the Sierra Club, have condemned the project, citing inevitable degradation to air quality from the estimated 1,200 daily truck trips to and from the site.

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

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.