The Riverside County Board of Supervisors last week approved the initiation of a Foundation General Plan Amendment (FGPA) to convert the land use of more than 100 acres of undeveloped property in Mead Valley from very low density residential to light industrial despite opposition.
“We’re seeing that our whole entire community is being destroyed and turned into warehouses, and all the Hispanic and other people that live here and [have] been here for years will be forced out, totally forced out,” Mead Valley resident Debbie Walsh, who has been advocating against the proliferation of warehouses in the Inland Empire for years, said at the January 27 meeting. “Our community will be totally destroyed.”
As part of Riverside County’s FGPA process, supervisors must determine whether the proposed land use change makes sense within the context of surrounding uses before an implementing project can be submitted for consideration.
“This is just the beginning of a conversation,” Board Chair Karen Spiegel said. “So when the project comes forward within six months, and we talk about the benefits of the community, there’ll be a different discussion.”
Selena Kelaher, a senior project manager at EPD Solutions, spoke on behalf of Solana Beach-based developer Lansing Companies. According to Kelaher, the project site was located less than a mile west of the 215 Freeway with direct access to the on and off ramps at Harley Knox Boulevard, which has been identified as a “major arterial” within Mead Valley.
The eastern border of the property is abutted by business park and light industrial land uses, though the western and southern borders of the property is abutted by very low density residential communities.
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Kelaher said that in 2020, four years before the developer was able to apply for the current FGPA cycle, Lansing Companies sent out a survey to approximately 800 property owners and residents in the communities surrounding the property.
“There was a 9% response rate, which provided us with information on the initial issues that the community [was] facing at the time in which the project is looking to engage and address,” Kelaher said.
Those issues, she said, included street improvements and safety, litter and trash maintenance and ensuring that truck traffic did not travel through residential communities, which Kelaher said the company was “committed to studying.”
“I’d also like to note that nearly 56% of the respondents said they would support development if it generates revenue to benefit the Mead Valley community,” she said.
According to Kelaher, the “redevelopment of the site with an industrial development of approximately 2 million square feet,” would produce approximately $500,000 in annual tax revenue to the county in addition to the one-time estimated development impact fee of $3 million.
“In addition, the project will bring temporary construction jobs of approximately 500 and permanent jobs estimated at 1,000,” she said, though no further detail was given at the meeting since the development itself was not under consideration.
The county received 25 letters of opposition to the initiation prior to the meeting and heard from 11 people at the meeting, all in opposition, including Mead Valley resident Karla Cervantes.
“We’re better than warehouses,” she said. “We have more than warehouses to offer. We are musicians, lawyers, doctors, chefs and need resources to help us achieve those roles.”
The developer has six months to submit an implementing project, which will come back before the supervisors for final approval before the FGPA is completed. To date, the supervisors have approved every implementing project brought before the board as part of the 2024 FGPA cycle.
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