AQMD Asks Beaumont to Review Proposed 5 Million Sq. Foot Warehousing Project

Published June 12, 2013 at 08:16 pm:

Beaumont should put the brakes on a massive warehouse project because it has failed to properly review hazards to air quality, according the agency responsible for regulating air pollution for the area.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District, responsible for regulating sources of air pollution in much of Southern California, recently sent the city of Beaumont a letter criticizing their consideration of approving a 5 million square foot warehousing project "without adequate review." They also verbally relayed those concerns to council.

At the June 4 city council meeting, the council was presented with an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) addendum and a use change request for a 417.2 acre area located along the north side of State Route 60, south of Oak Valley Parkway and west of Potrero Blvd, according to city documents.  The original plan for this area, detailed in the Heartland Specific Plan approved in 1994, was slated for: 207.6 acres of residential use with approximately 1,200 homes, 50.3 acres of industrial use, 11.5 acres of commercial use, 9.2 acres of school use, 25.3 acres of parks and 89 acres of open space.

Now, the city is looking to change that to an industrial center with a total of "...5.02 million square feet of floor area, contained within five buildings, for distribution uses," staff reports indicate.

According to the AQMD, the city should not be approving the EIR addendum nor the amendment to the general plan for the zoning change, until a "more robust" environmental review pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) has been conducted.

"Without this level of review the project appears to have potentially significant air quality impacts that have not been disclosed, and mitigation has not been adequately considered to reduce these impacts," a letter stated from Ian MacMillan, program supervisor for CEQA inter-governmental review.

"We note that this project is one of the largest individual warehousing projects that our staff has ever seen," he added.

In the letter-- posted for the public to read in its entirety on the AQMD website here-- MacMillan lists several "fundamental flaws" with the city's recommended EIR addendum. 

The official listed multiple concerns with the project as it stands for approval now, including the following excerpts (full descriptions for each bullet point are available online here):

• Project is Substantially Different than Previously Approved Specific Plan-- "The proposed 5 million square foot warehousing project is substantially different than the currently approved project composed of mostly single family housing."
• Methodology-- "The air quality analysis used several methodologies that substantially underestimate potential air quality impacts from this project"
• Localized Impacts not Analyzed-- "The proposed project will bring in a substantial number of trucks to a dominantly rural or residential area. If any of these trucks need to access the I-10 freeway going west, they will likely need to travel adjacent to existing homes in Beaumont."
• Using an Inappropriate CEQA Baseline-- "The project assumes that the previously approved Heartland Specific Plan is the appropriate baseline to use to compare against the proposed project’s impacts.
• Health Risk Impacts not Analyzed-- "Diesel particulate matter is a recognized carcinogen by the state, and a Health Risk Assessment (HRA) is the standard tool to determine if emissions might adversely impact public health. As the project will serve a large number of diesel trucks, a HRA should be conducted to determine if it will impose significant health risks on nearby residents."
• General Plan Land Use not Consistent with AQMP-- "The proposed change in land use is not consistent with the Air Quality Management Plan (AQMP) and substantial evidence has not been provided to indicate otherwise."
• Potentially Feasible Mitigation not Considered-- "The proposed project does not appear to contain potentially feasible mitigation measures to reduce air quality impacts, such as cleaner trucks..."
• Inadequate Time for Review-- "Given the significant issues raised above, neither SCAQMD staff nor the public was provided adequate time to review the analysis of potential impacts from this project."

What's more, MacMillan says his agency only learned of the project on June 3, by a member of the public.

"With additional time to review a more complete analysis, the public and/or SCAQMD staff may be able to provide more meaningful input that could improve this project and reduce any potentially significant impacts," he says in the letter.

MacMillan also echoed many of those sentiments when he appeared at the June 4 meeting.

"I think many of the statements that you just made there are canned statements that are just flawed," Beaumont's Mayor, Roger Berg, said at the meeting.

"The trucks now, they don't idle at the warehouse like they used to," Berg said, while pointing out some of the advancements that have been made in technology since the EIR was originally taken in 1994, asking if that AQMD took that into consideration.

The mayor also addressed the agency's concern with distance that trucks would travel to and from the proposed distribution center.

"Most of our warehouses that we've got in the areas here, the distribution centers and such, they bring the goods in, we have an offload facility here," he added.  "Maybe you're not aware of that, in the city of Beaumont, for the trains.  We have an offload facility that we own.  We own a mile of track, there may be the potential there for picking these goods off there, taking them to a central warehouse where they are picked up and they are distributed out to people that purchase them."

Berg also defended the project, saying it has the potential to bring employment opportunities to the area.

"We're trying to provide jobs for people to work in this community," he said.  "Good jobs that pay money... There's a lot of people that graduated from high school that need jobs.  They need to buy their goods."

An official with the group which put together the EIR addendum also addressed some of the AQMD's concern at the council meeting, clarifying many of the agency's concerns.  Click here to listen to that audio for explanations from Ross Geller, with Applied Planning.  (Jump to the 90 minute mark of the podcast for his portion.)

One of his main arguments was that this project would actually be less harmful to the environment than the current, residential plan.

"Although on its surface it may seem counter-intuitive, it's not," Geller said.  "As the data proves, this is a less impactful development compared to what could go there."

Due to the public concern on the project, and the receipt of several additional public comment letters just prior to the June 4 meeting, the city council did not vote on the first reading of the amendment, and pushed further discussion to July 2.

"So many questions need to be answered," Councilman Jeff Fox said, while making the motion to continue the discussion on the project.  "Give us a couple weeks, let's dive into it."

As of Wednesday, June 12, AQMD agency officials tell Banning-Beaumont Patch they have not had any more communication with the city.

Click here to read more specifics as outlined by the city about the Heartland Specific Plan.