Environmental Groups Win Increased Community Protections from Cajalco Commerce Center

Riverside, CA - The Sierra Club, Rural Association of Mead Valley (RAMV), and Industrial VI Enterprises have reached a settlement agreement over the controversial 1+ million-square-foot warehouse approved for construction in Mead Valley, Riverside County, known as the Cajalco Commerce Center. 

"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” said Debbie Walsh, President of RAMV. 

Under the settlement the project must take significant steps to substantially mitigate the air pollution, greenhouse gases, and harm to local environmental justice communities already disproportionately harmed by pollution, and other threats posed by the warehouse project–especially harm that would otherwise result from the huge number of diesel trucks that will be going in and out the warehouse.  Under the settlement, the project must use electric construction equipment as well as low and zero-emission trucks and freight handling equipment; be powered by solar energy generated on site; route truck traffic away from smaller roads; incorporate fire-resistant and drought-tolerant landscaping, including a tree-screen around the entire warehouse site to minimize light, noise diesel pollution on the surrounding community. The settlement agreement also prohibits the site from being used for cold-storage, which would have resulted in severe noise and pollution impacts for the neighboring community. 

"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" said Michael McCarthy, Conservation Co-Chair of Sierra Club's San Gorgonio Chapter Box Springs Group. "Every new warehouse in our region should be held to a higher standard to protect our communities and the environment." 

Under the settlement, the warehouse must employ a minimum number of employees to avoid operating a "dark warehouse" and provide heat safety. The developer must also establish an open-space buffer for the park planned for south of the warehouse, provide an additional three acres of parkland in the Downtown Core of Mead Valley, and pay into a housing displacement fund for the project’s displacement of renters and mobile home residents. 

The County's environmental review found the 65-acre project would create "unavoidable" harm to the community, including increased air pollution, noise, and traffic impacts. The Sierra Club and Rural Association of Mead Valley, represented in this case by Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP, raised these and several other concerns during the administrative process before both the Planning Commission and the County Board of Supervisors. Despite these comments and residents’ vocal opposition to the project, in November of last year, the County approved the project and certified the corresponding environmental impact report without requiring any further mitigation. In response, Sierra Club and Rural Association of Mead Valley filed a lawsuit under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and subsequent negotiations resulted in the settlement. 

This project is one of several which were approved or are pending approval as part of Riverside County’s 2024 Foundation General Plan Amendment cycle. This settlement pushes back against these ongoing attempts to expand industrial development at the expense of the surrounding communities. It will ensure that the project provides the benefits that were promised to the community during the administrative process and meaningfully addresses the project’s negative impacts.