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A state agency has dismissed Moreno Valley’s environmental study regarding a proposed mega-industrial project in the city.
The California Air Resources Board called the city’s report on the World Logistics Center “fundamentally inadequate,” and declared that the study is in need of major changes before the project can be considered for approval, according to a report in The Press-Enterprise.
The report quoted an eight-page letter by Heather Arias, chief of the resources board’s freight transport branch.
That assessment was immediately disputed by the project’s developer, Iddo Benzeevi, president and chief executive officer of Highland Fairview Co. in Moreno Valley, which develops large industrial projects.
“Both the city and Highland Fairview’s independent legal counsel have reviewed the exhaustive [California Environmental Quality Act] and analysis and found it to be thorough and complete,” Benzeevi told the newspaper in a formal statement. “The World Logistics Center also incorporates the most stringent and aggressive environmental mitigation of any project of its kind.”
Benzeevi had little to add when asked today to expand on his remarks.
“It’s a complicated issue,” the developer said. “All I can tell you is that what they’re saying [about the environmental study] isn’t true.”
Moreno Valley officials received the letter earlier this week and are still evaluating it, the report stated.
World Logistics Center would be about the size of 700 football fields. Highland Fairview has said it will create 20,000 jobs, but some are concerned with its estimated 14,000 truck trips a day and what damage that might do to the environment.
The planning commission is scheduled to discuss the project Thursday.
