The Moreno Valley City Council is set to discuss a temporary warehouse moratorium at its regularly scheduled Tuesday meeting following a 3-2 vote last month.
Councilmember Cheylynda Barnard first brought the idea to the council at the January 6 meeting where she made a motion to explore an initial 45-day moratorium on logistics, warehousing and industrial projects due to the city’s current work on a general plan update, City Manager Brian Mohan said at the January 20 meeting.
“There are currently nine Inland Empire municipalities that have enacted some form of a moratorium or an outright ban on logistics, warehousing and industrial projects to study environmental and health impacts, one of them being Perris,” Mohan said, noting that the city of Perris the week before had voted to extend its moratorium through December 9 of this year.
According to Mohan, because the city is currently undergoing a review of its general plan, the council would legally be able to adopt a development moratorium, as long as it establishes that the continued development would result in a threat to public health, safety and welfare. Any moratorium would have to be approved by four of the five council members.
Assistant City Manager Sean Kelleher said the city currently has 4,461 acres of land within the city that is zoned for industrial use, though fewer than 200 acres remain vacant and unentitled.
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“A good majority of the lots that have those designations that are vacant are very, very small,” he said. “A lot of those you’re going to find ultimately within, to be honest, the Edgemont area, where use restrictions ultimately are placed on those properties because of the fact that it is so close to the base and airport.”
Kelleher said that the city was currently reviewing industrial use proposals for roughly 175 acres, some of which would require general plan amendments and zoning changes to be allowed to move forward.
“I’m trying to give us the room and the space to clear everything before we just continue to roll down the hill,” Barnard said. “This pause, or this hold, has nothing to do with what’s actually already approved and coming down the pipeline. We’re talking about relatively not a lot of warehousing, but I do think there needs to be a conversation.”
The motion to bring a proposed ordinance back for Tuesday’s meeting ultimately passed with Barnard, Mayor Pro Tem Erlan Gonzalez and Mayor Ulises Cabrera in support of continued discussion. Council members Elena Baca-Santa Cruz and Ed Delgado voted against.
“I’m going to vote yes on this with the understanding that I will be asking for exemptions and carve outs when this comes back to the council, and hope that there’s a consensus for that,” Cabrera said before the vote. “Just want to state that for the record.”
Tuesday’s regular meeting is set to begin at 6 p.m. in the council chambers at Moreno Valley City Hall. The full agenda can be found here on the city’s website.
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