The Sierra Club and Rural Association of Mead Valley have reached an agreement environmental protections with the developer of the Cajalco Commerce Center, a proposed warehouse project totaling over 1 million square feet.
According to an Aug. 10 lawsuit settlement agreement, Industrial VI Enterprises, a subsidiary of Texas-based developer Hillwood, will use electric construction equipment as well as low and zero-emission trucks and freight handling equipment; power the facility with solar energy generated on site; route truck traffic away from smaller roads; and incorporate fire-resistant and drought-tolerant landscaping, including a tree-screen around the site perimeter to minimize light, noise and diesel pollution. The settlement also prohibits cold-storage, which environmental groups said would have caused severe noise and pollution for the site’s residential neighbors.
The site is at the southeast corner of Cajalco Road and Seaton Avenue in Mead Valley, an unincorporated community south of Riverside.
“The settlement helps to protect residents from the harmful impacts of the warehouse’s diesel trucks by restricting them from certain roads and it will also provide much needed additional park acreage,” Debbie Walsh, Rural Association of Mead Valley president, said in a statement.
Hillwood representatives declined to comment on the agreement.
The Sierra Club referred to the settlement as “significant steps” to mitigate the air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the large number of diesel trucks that will be going in and out the warehouse.
“We’re glad we could raise the baseline standards for freight pollution, electrification, jobs, housing displacement, and required community benefits from another mega-warehouse in Mead Valley,” Michael McCarthy from the Sierra Club’s San Gorgonio Chapter Box Springs Group said in a statement. “Every new warehouse in our region should be held to a higher standard to protect our communities and the environment.”
The developer agreed to employ a minimum of 295 on-site, full-time employees annually to avoid operating a “dark warehouse” and provide heat safety, according to the agreement. If Hillwood is unable to meet the employment standard, an annual penalty of $45,000 goes toward unemployment aid and career services in western Riverside County. The maximum total penalty is $950,000.
The developer must also establish an open-space buffer for the park planned for the warehouse’s southern side and provide an additional 3 acres of parkland in the Mead Valley area. Hillwood also agreed to pay into a fund for the project’s displacement of renters and mobile home residents.
An environmental review by Riverside County found the 65-acre project would create “unavoidable” harm to the community, including increased air pollution, noise and traffic impacts, but it gained approval from the county Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors.
In November, the county Board of Supervisors followed the Planning Commission’s approval of the project and certified the corresponding environmental impact report without any further mitigation requirements. That prompted the lawsuit by the Sierra Club and local Rural Association under the California Environmental Quality Act. Subsequent negotiations resulted in the settlement, according to the Sierra Club.
The Cajalco Commerce Center is one of several projects approved or are pending approval as part of Riverside County’s 2024 Foundation General Plan Amendment cycle.
According to the Sierra Club, the settlement agreement pushes back against ongoing attempts to expand industrial development at the expense of the surrounding communities. The settlement will make sure that the project provides the benefits that were promised to the community during the administrative process and meaningfully addresses the warehouse’s negative impacts.
A copy of the settlement agreement is on the Sierra Club’s website.
Hillwood is a subsidiary of the Perot Group.