Four environmental groups jointly sued San Bernardino County Dec. 16 to block the construction of a Bloomington warehouse complex. The groups claim the county failed to consider the impacts of increased truck traffic when it approved the construction, in violation of the California Environmental Quality Act. The county denied the charge.
“The County’s process was compliant with CEQA. The County will examine the lawsuit and take appropriate action,” wrote Felisa Cardona, San Bernardino County deputy public information officer, in an email.
Tim Howard of Howard Industrial Partners is leading the project. Howard declined to comment on the pending litigation.
The project
The 213-acre business park with a warehouse and distribution center is roughly the size of Crafton Hills College, and would make up 1/20th of Bloomington’s area. The County Board of Supervisors’ agenda says 17.67 acres will be a 383,000-square foot warehouse; 57.6 acres will be a 1.25 million-square foot warehouse; 30 acres will be a 479,000 sq-ft warehouse.
The groups claim it would add 8,555 vehicle trips per day.
It is bounded by Santa Ana Avenue to the north, Jurupa Avenue to the south, Maple Avenue and Linden Avenue to the east, and Alder Avenue to the west. The complex would be adjacent to Bloomington High School, Walter Zimmerman High School, Ruth O. Harris Elementary School and Kessler Park. It is about a mile from Jurupa Hills Regional Park and Oak Quarry Golf Club.
Causes of action
“We hoped that the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors had the consciousness and convictions to never allow this to happen in an already overburdened community that is majority Latino low-income families, but they voted for it with no deliberation or consideration to public concerns of displacement and perpetuation of environmental racism,” said Ana Gonzalez, executive director of Jurupa Valley’s Center for Community Action Environmental Justice in a press release.
The complaint’s first cause of action is failure to provide opportunity for Spanish-speaking residents to participate in the CEQA process. They claim the county did not circulate Spanish-language environmental impact report drafts. Their second and third causes claim violation of the Fair Housing Act. Their fourth cause says the rezoning from the project will cause a net loss in housing that violates California’s Housing Crisis Act of 2019.
The complaint specifically says the project violated CEQA by not having adequate mitigation measures like requiring electric trucks and electric operational equipment, or having a 30-minute limit on truck turnaround time.
It also claimed the Draft Environmental Impact Report ignored emissions from transportation into and out of the warehouse, and ignored global warming potential.
The complaint’s fourth claim is that the draft report failed to analyze and mitigate environmental justice impacts in Bloomington. They follow up by arguing the report did not mitigate noise impacts for residences 11 feet from the property, improperly deferred mitigation of agricultural impacts since the land is currently agricultural, and did not consider biological impacts to species like the Delhi Sands flower-loving fly and the burrowing owl. The county also erred by not responding to comments between the draft report and the final report, the complaint argues.
Approval and opposition
San Bernardino County Supervisors approved the project Nov. 15. The agreement between Howard and the county says that Howard Industrial will pay 34 cents per net usable square foot of each building every year. It also says they will pay $2 per usable square foot immediately, and will donate up to $3 million to the county to pay for the acquisition of the El Rivino Basin.
Of the 135 pre-written public comments submitted to the Board of Directors, 130 opposed the project. Inland Counties Legal Services opposed the project, stating it raised fair housing concerns. Jurupa Valley formally opposed the project, saying the truck traffic would congest Rubidoux Boulevard.
“Building warehouses in the middle of our neighborhood strips us of our right to breathe clean air and these buildings encroach upon our homes, schools and ultimately our freedom,” wrote Alejandra Gonzalez, member of the Grand Terrace’s People’s Collective for Environmental Justice in the release.
Case information
Earthjustice represents The People’s Collective for Environmental Justice and Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice. The Western Center on Law and Poverty also represents The People’s Collective. The Sierra Club is represented by sole practitioner Abigail Smith.
Read the agreement between Howard Industrial and the county here.
Read the complaint here.
