Over 60 people and representatives from across the Inland Empire and various organizations met in Mead Valley to learn about mobilization efforts from local community leaders. Leaders from Hemet, Riverside and Perris came together to educate and inspire community members throughout the region. From concerns of disproportional industrialization and environmental burdens to land use and labor organizing, these issues reflect broader struggles over equity, sustainability, and community rights throughout the region.
On May 16, 2026, The Freight Communities Action Coalition (FCAC) led their third collaborative workshop at the Mead Valley Library, continuing their goals to educate and involve the public on local industrial, land-use, air-quality, and trucking concerns. The FCAC is a grant steering committee, funded by the California Air Resources Board, and managed by a network of a dozen community, educational, and environmental justice groups including Sierra Club San Gorgonio Chapter, Center for Community Action & Environmental Justice, Riverside Neighbors Opposing Warehouses (R-NOW), Robert Redford Conservancy, People's Collective For Environmental Justice, Mead Valley Coalition For Clean Air & Healthy Communities, Perris Neighbors in Action, Save Temescal Valley, Green Coalition of San Jacinto Valley, Focus Nuevo, Rural Association of Mead Valley, and Inland Valley Alliance for Environmental Justice.
The recent Saturday workshop was a success drawing out a full-house of over 60 attendees. Regional stakeholders of all ages and backgrounds spoke for over two-hours learning about people's experiences with warehouses, poor air-quality, and their advocacy work. A few community leaders were able to share their success stories of past mobilization efforts against industrial projects and equitable pay for warehouse workers. They conversed with the public on how to recreate and continue similar activities. Amazing questions, strategies, and wisdom were exchanged among all the attendees. Towards the end of the event, everyone began networking and cultivating the bonds which will be influential to the region's mobilizing efforts of the future.
This third iteration of FCAC’s community summits featured guest speakers: Jean Faenza (Hemet NOW), Jen Larratt-Smith (R-NOW), Jairo Carbajal (Perris Neighbors In Action), Nannette Plascencia (Union For Amazon), and Franco Pacheco (Inland Valley Alliance For Environmental Justice). Tatiana Flores (CCAEJ) and Karla Cervantes (Mead Valley Coalition For Clean Air, Sierra Club San Gorgonio) were the event’s moderators and lead organizers.
“We're all impacted by each other. Trucks and air quality don't stay within boundaries. We're all interconnected and that's why it's important to support one another.”
— Jen Larratt-Smith, R-NOW & Sierra Club San Gorgonio
“The trucks (that) are on my roads are going on your roads. We only have three ways in and out of Hemet.”
— Jean Faenza, Hemet NOW
“I live in Perris and our roads are horrible. We have to deal with a lot of impacts from those trucks. Their routes are all interconnected with other cities so I know they're all dealing with the same problems. The other thing is the kind of work (warehouses) bring to the city that affects everyone in the community. What kind of work are they bringing with these gigantic warehouses? A lot of them actually only employ maybe a couple hundred people at tops, but these warehouses are 1.5 million square feet, a lot of it is automated.”
— Nannette Plascencia, Union For Amazon
“Air pollution, traffic pollution, noise pollution, light pollution, it knows no bounds. In the region where we live we are surrounded by mountains so what happens in one city, it definitely affects a neighboring city.”
— Franco Pacheco, Inland Valley Alliance For Environmental Justice & Sierra Club San Gorgonio
Here are a few local wins for residents which were discussed as successful examples of community mobilization:
In Perris, advocates were able to unseat the longest serving politician in their city's history, Rita Rogers, after 25 years of irresponsible industrial approvals in favor of a more progressive, pro-resident representative: Councilmember Elizabeth Vallejo, in 2024. Advocates were also able to deny the development of a massive warehouse project in favor of the construction of an apartment building. Perris is currently one of a dozen Inland Empire municipalities which has a warehouse moratorium which will last until November, and currently have some of the strongest good-neighbor guidelines enacted in our region.
Last year in Riverside, the March Joint Powers Authority (JPA) voted to reject the controversial Meridian West Campus Upper Plateau warehouse project, following a massive wave of public opposition. Hundreds of residents, advocates, and youth packed the hearing room to speak out on the project which proposed 4.7 million square feet of warehouse area, calling attention to the serious environmental and health consequences it would bring to already overburdened neighborhoods.
Recently in Hemet, over 200 residents and stakeholders flooded their city council chambers to advocate for the denial of a 1 million square foot warehouse proposed near Diamond Valley Lake.
Please follow the Freight Communities Action Coalition for more information and events! @FreightCommunitiesAC on Instagram. The past two community summits by FCAC were focused on truck routes (AB98 & SB415), health, and pollution concerns related to warehousing. To read more about those past events, check out this article by Anthony Victoria of KVCR: