Riverside County Supervisors Approve Mead Valley Megawarehouse Project

The Riverside County Supervisors last month unanimously approved a megawarehouse project in the Mead Valley area. The vote came months after supervisors initiated a general plan amendment that allowed the project to be submitted.

“Warehouses are not, to use a word I learned at [the University of California, Riverside], are not panaceas. They will not solve all the issues of Mead Valley,” Supervisor Jose Medina said ahead of the October 21 vote. “But I think, in this case, the positive does outweigh the negative.”

Scott Morse, executive vice president at Hillwood, said the company had been working on the Cajalco Commerce Center project for the last four years with both county staff and Mead Valley residents. Hillwood is a Dallas-based real estate investment and development company founded by Ross Perot Jr., the son of the late businessman, politician and philanthropist Ross Perot.

The project, as presented, will sit on a 58-acre plot of land, of which 44 acres would be utilized for the construction of a 1,003,510-square-foot warehouse, which is set to include 152 truck loading bays and a parking lot with 366 spaces. The remainder of the site will be used for a park complex, which is set to have 87 parking spaces split between two lots.

“After working with the community stakeholders over the last four years, we heard that the community needs infrastructure and amenities which extend beyond the impacts of the project,” he said. “So we are proposing a true commitment to the community through significant public street improvements, as well as a new neighborhood sports park recreational complex.”

That complex, as presented, will feature a soccer field, tennis court, basketball court, dog park, picnic and barbecue areas. Its maintenance and upkeep would be paid for in perpetuity by a special tax district known as a community facilities district (CFD) that will only include the warehouse site, and as part of the approval process must be constructed before the developer can receive the building permit for the warehouse.

Morse also said the project, as currently planned, would work to preserve the community’s current traffic flow by restricting trucks to Seton Avenue, which feeds directly into Interstate 215. Additionally, the project’s current landscape plan includes 360 trees, including 102 of which would be used to provide a buffer between the project site and the community. 

Morse said Hillwood would also be improving the roads around the project site as a community benefit.

“These improvements are not driven by the project’s impacts, but rather our commitment to give back to the neighborhood we are we would like to work within,” he said.

In total, Morse said Hillwood has agreed to provide more than $40 million in amenities and infrastructure improvements as part of the project, which also includes purchasing, and transferring to the county, five acres of property within the Mead Valley core to be used for commercial development and a passive park.

Those who supported the project talked about the need for increased development in the area, the jobs that would be created and the community benefits being provided by the developer.

“I think we really need the economic growth right now, as many companies are laying off employees everywhere across the nation, and we definitely need the new jobs in our area,” Jalani Arriaga, a Mead Valley resident, said. “It’s going to be a good thing to have good paying jobs right here in our neighborhood, instead of having to drive far away, like a lot of us have to do in Mead Valley already, and I think it’s time to move our community forward and support this great project.”

Those who opposed the project brought up concerns with the number of warehouses already in the Mead Valley area as well as the impacts another warehouse would have on the traffic, local roads and air quality in the community.

“Mead Valley already has an abundance of warehouses along Harvill Avenue, the 215 freeway and surrounding cities like Perris and Moreno Valley. Our community deserves better planning,” Victoria Camarena, a Mead Valley resident, said. “Even with the last minute additions to the conditions of approval, this project does not provide enough for the community.”

In total, the supervisors heard nearly two hours of public comment in which 51 people spoke — 39 in support of the project and 12 against.

Medina, as well as supervisors V. Manuel Perez and Karen Spiegel, thanked those who came out to speak at the meeting for sharing their thoughts on the project and the work that had been put into moving the conversation forward.

“We can only go by what’s here, the information given [to] us, and I just appreciate a very well structured [comment] from every single one of you that came forward,” Spiegel said. “Information was shared, sounds like a lot of research was done, and the passion, and so I look forward to setting an example for future projects.”