Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comment from Randall Lewis, senior executive vice president of marketing for the Lewis Group of Companies which is developing the project.
The March Joint Powers Authority (March JPA) Commission is set once again to hold a public hearing on a controversial warehouse proposal that developers said has been updated to incorporate comments from last summer’s public hearing.
“We’re happy that they did that,” Randall Lewis, senior executive vice president of marketing for the Lewis Group of Companies which is developing the project, said in an interview with The Record. “We want to get a chance to present some of the new concepts, and we’d like to get a chance to present it in front of everybody, so we’re happy that they’re doing this.”
The May 12 public hearing was set after the commission last month voted 7-1 to untable the item and bring it back to the commission for discussion. The vote came less than two months after the commission voted to keep the item tabled, also on a 7-1 vote.
“Because of what the attorney recommended to me and to the individual members was to give [the developer] an opportunity to present it because it was a modified project,” Supervisor Yxstian Gutierrez, who serves as vice chair of the March JPA Commission, said in an interview with The Riverside Record. “The only change that I have seen, it came through an email, and it was through the March JPA office where it did show the modification.”
Gutierrez was the only one of eight commission members who spoke on the record with The Riverside Record about the move to bring the project back for consideration.
Michael Vargas, who is the mayor of Perris and chair of the commission, and Perris Councilmember Marisela Nava, who voted against untabling the item, declined to comment. Moreno Valley Mayor Ulises Cabrera and Councilmember Ed Delgado as well as Riverside Councilmembers Chuck Conder and Jim Perry did not return multiple requests for comment. Supervisor Jose Medina could not be reached for comment in time for publication.
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Thomas Rice, attorney for the March JPA, said during the March 5 meeting that while the commission did provide a public hearing, the developer argued that they were denied due process when the commission tabled the item last summer.
“The applicant has asserted that the failure to provide an up [or] down final decision and to simply table the matter, putting them in a position of having to ask for it to be untabled or submit a new application altogether, is a deprivation of their due process,” he said. “And I think, I will say this much, that we can avoid that legal issue simply by untabling and hearing the matter, and you still retain your discretion to vote no on the project.”
As a condition of that untabling, the developer was required to hold a community meeting ahead of the public hearing March JPA Chief Executive Officer Grace Martin said in an email to The Riverside Record.
“At the March 5 commission meeting, the applicant spoke during public comments and asked that their project be untabled, and they promised the commission that they would host a community meeting to inform the public of the changes to their project, if the project was untabled,” Martin said. “The project was untabled that day and the applicant scheduled their outreach meeting with the community which they held at the March Field Air Museum.”
Martin said that while the March JPA was “not informed” about what the meeting would entail, the agency shared the flier and promoted the meeting on social media to increase public awareness.
“On April 8, the developer had a community meeting, which was just a dog and pony show,” Jen Larratt-Smith, chair of Riverside Neighbors Opposing Warehouses (R-NOW), said. “They had their little bullet points, and if you asked them any questions, they wouldn’t go any deeper than that.”
The updated project, now called the March Innovation HUB on a new website promoting the development, will feature 20% less building space, 42% more open space, a 110% increase in buffer space, a 38% reduction in traffic, a 35% reduction in emissions and added research and tech.
“In trying to think what to do there, what to make it different and also what could have positive impact on the region, we did a lot of work,” Lewis said. “One of the things we’d heard from a number of stakeholders was that there’s a lot of good research going on, there’s a lot of good innovation and entrepreneurship going on, but there’s not one sort of campus…where like minded people could locate.”
Lewis said it was his hope to be able to work with area universities and colleges, as well as the city of Riverside’s Community and Economic Development Department, to create a hub of technology and innovation that brings together research and industry in one central location.
“These are things that I’m really interested in, that we hope to do on this campus,” he said.
What hasn’t changed is the proposed footprint of the warehouse component of the project, which still includes three separate buildings — one that’s 59.55 acres, another that’s 56.25 acres and the final that’s 27.51 acres — according to plans posted on the March JPA page for the Meridian West Campus – Upper Plateau project.
“The thing we’ve been telling the community, and that the community has said to the JPA, is that this is the same project,” Larratt-Smith said. “Not one square inch of warehouses is different. The original plan had 143 acres of industrial [buildings], and this plan has 143 acres of industrial [buildings].”
What has changed is the amount of land being proposed for business park or mixed-use development, creating additional opportunities for open space.
“They had no commitment to actually build any of that stuff on the periphery anyway,” Mike McCarthy, vice chair of R-NOW, said. “The only thing that they committed to building as part of their payment schedule is just the mega warehouses.”
The website also promotes some of the project’s community benefits, including the creation of 3,100 permanent jobs, a new fire station, a new community park that’s up to 60 acres, and 578 acres of conservation land and open space.
“It’s clear there are a number of people who are vehemently opposed to this development, but we have found that there are people who support it and see that there’s jobs and there’s benefits, because that will help pay for the parks and some of the infrastructure,” Lewis said.
But the members of R-NOW said the benefits were being presented without needed context.
“Advertising the park as a benefit is disingenuous, because they owed us that part 20 years ago under a previous agreement,” Andrew Silva, of R-NOW, said. “It’s got nothing to do with this project.”
“Same with the open space,” McCarthy added. “The conservation easement, 498 acres of the 578 acres they promise [in the proposal], is existing settlement agreement obligations, so 87% of it is required for them to be able to develop it all.”
For now, the members of R-NOW said they were mobilizing to get people to attend next month’s public hearing on the project, though they’re cautiously optimistic.
“We feel like there’s a lot of political momentum against warehouses right now, in addition to economic momentum,” McCarthy said.
“Our focus is getting as many people out there as we can,” Larratt-Smith said. “We know that we have community support behind us, that nobody wants these warehouses, so we’re trying to get hundreds of people out there again.”
The public hearing is set for 6:30 p.m. May 12 at the Riverside County Administrative Center, 4080 Lemon St. in Riverside. A full agenda for the meeting will be posted to the March JPA website at least 72 hours in advance.
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