Moreno Valley says no to logistics moratorium

Since January 2021, six Inland Empire cities have passed bans on the construction of warehouse-distribution facilities.

Four of those – Perris, Hemet, Chino, and Norco – lasted only 45 days, enough time for each city council and planning department to reconsider how many of those projects they want to allow into their city.

In January 2025, Rialto agreed to suspend all logistics construction for 45 days, but it extended that for six months so it could review its zoning and traffic regulations, as well as its environmental concerns.

The longest moratorium, in Jurupa Valley, started in January 2021 and lasted two years, while Colton’s started in May of 2021 and lasted one year. In June 2022, Redlands passed a 145-day moratorium.

In January, Redlands stopped short of an outright ban, but it did place strict regulations on logistics construction, including prohibiting facilities of more than 400 square feet in most parts of the city.

Riverside also requires at least a 300-foot buffers between loading docks and residential neighborhoods, and it prohibits trucks from parking, or lining up, on residential streets. It has also mandated the building of higher walls and landscaping buffers for logistics sites near residential areas.

All of those actions were a response to years of logistics development in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Today, the Inland region has more than one billion square feet of such development, according to multiple estimates.

But one Inland city recently defied that trend.

On Feb. 3, the Moreno Valley City Council voted 3-2 to approve a ban on the construction of all warehouse-distribution facilities. However, four votes were needed to put such a ban in place, so the moratorium did not pass.

That only three council members voted in favor of the relatively short-term ban was “a shock and a surprise,” said Ana Gonzalez, executive director of the non-profit Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice in Jurupa Valley.

“I expected a different outcome, because a lot of cities have been adopting these moratoriums, and I thought Moreno Valley would do the same,” Gonzalez said. “AB 98 has caused a lot of cities to update their general plans, like Moreno Valley is doing now.”

Signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September 2024, Assembly Bill 98 established mandatory standards regarding the location and operation of warehouse-distribution facilities.

AB 98 requires cities and counties to establish truck routes that avoid schools and residential neighborhoods. It also establishes strict design standards for all warehouse-distribution projects.

Most of AB 98’s provisions went into effect Jan. 1. By January 2028, all cities statewide are required to have updated their general plan so they conform with AB 98, particularly regarding its provisions for keeping large trucks out of residential areas.

Before AB 98 became law, Moreno Valley had issues with its general plan.

In May 2024, a Riverside County judge ruled that the city’s general plan violated state environmental laws. That ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the state attorney general in 2022 that alleged Moreno Valley’s general plan did not do enough to reduce air pollution caused by years of logistics growth in the city.

Moreno Valley is negotiating with the state attorney general’s office to fix its general plan. Approving the moratorium in place might have sped up that process, according to Gonzalez.

“This was Moreno Valley’s opportunity to be in compliance with AB 98, get their general plan in order, and resolve the lawsuit with the attorney general,” Gonzalez said. “It’s unfortunate for the people of Moreno Valley that the council didn’t take that opportunity, because they’re taking the brunt of the pollution in the Inland (Empire).”

Certainly the city has to put up with its share of fallout from logistics projects, and it will have to do so in the future even if it never approves another warehouse-distribution project.

Moreno Valley has about four million square feet of industrial space within its borders, and it’s home to the World Logistics Center, a $25 billion project that broke ground two years ago and is under construction between Redlands Boulevard and Gilman Springs Road.

When completed, the WLC will be made up of 27 buildings spread across 26 acres, with structures up to 80 feet high.

The WLC is expected to take seven years to build. During that time it is expected to create more than 33,000 construction and operations jobs, while generating approximately $22 million in annual tax revenue, according to the project’s developer, Highland Fairview in Moreno Valley.

But the city needs to take more than jobs and tax revenue into consideration the next time its considering whether to approve a logistics project, one of several speakers told the council.

“We have over 20 years of (warehouse development), in a lot of places that used to be neighborhoods,” said Franco Pacheco, Perris resident and co-founder of the Inland Valley Alliance for Environmental Justice, a group dedicated to preserving the natural habitat of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. “A lot of people feel like Moreno Valley is built out.

“You should come up with an ordinance that bans more warehouse development in Moreno Valley.”

But Mayor Ulises Cabrera, who voted against the moratorium along with Councilman Erlan Gonzalez, said he opposes a “blanket moratorium” against logistics development.

“I’ve seen the positives and negatives of industrial development in the city, and I’ve voted for warehouse and against warehouses,” Cabrera said. “If we had had higher standards 10 or 15 years ago, we wouldn’t be in the situation we’re in now. We’d have cleaner air, and the (traffic) congestion wouldn’t be as bad as it is.”

Ultimately, Cabrera said he decided to vote no because the state attorney general’s office hasn’t promised the city anything in exchange for putting a moratorium in place.

“If we give up something we should get something in return,” Cabrera said. “To vote for something without getting anything in return doesn’t strike me as a good way to negotiate.”

Moreno Valley’s negotiations with the state attorney general’s office regarding the general plan update – something that city’s normally do on their own every 10 years or so – should be finished in several months, Cabrera told his fellow council members.

“The general plan negotiations are going well,” Cabrera said. “We’ve been in litigation and negotiations for about two years now, and that’s way longer than it should have taken. A lot of projects are being held up because of the general plan negotiations.”