power source exists”. As AI Data Centers appear there is more concern on energy power demand. The article in the first link found above puts “emergency” in quotes because toxic diesel generators are sometimes needed to just meet AI regular energy demands. Leaving that wording in our Ordinance would encourage AI Data Centers to locate here because they would be able to easily use very polluting diesel generators. The Attorney General wrote— “Generators: All Warehouse projects developed under the 2024 GPU shall be prohibited from using diesel except for emergencies.” I believe this is better language for the Ordinance.
want to make sure that reapplying "cool roofing" material as needed for the life of the project is included with the current wording.
row of staggered trees that grow 5 feet taller than the warehouse. Trees that filter diesel https://insideclimatenews.org/news/12112025/data-center-diesel-generators- noise-pollution/
Data Centers’ Use of Diesel Generators for Backup Power Is Commonplace—and Problematic - Inside Climate News
pollution as well as light and noise pollution. Tall drought tolerant evergreen trees that help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) and Ozone pollution---where we are the second worst county in all of America. We need to designate in the ordinance that 20 feet of the 50 feet needs to be set aside for such landscaping around the perimeter. Current city standards do not allow for such setbacks for trees to better protect people and the environment.
landscaping the perimeter with the trees that are described in this section for all the reasons mentioned above. Even in the recently approved General Plan Update/Climate Action Plan the city is required to plant 200 trees per year to help reduce GHG and Ozone pollution in our non-attainment area — thereby showing the importance of trees.
storage warehouses need TRU’s plug-ins it is important that the Ordinance requires all Truck Loading Bays to have electrical hookups/plug-ins for electric Auxiliary Power Units (APU).
These APU’s run the truck's air-conditioning and other electrical devices for the driver without running the truck’s diesel engine. This will help reduce reliance on diesel APU’s and the pollution they cause to warehouse workers as well as our own poor air quality.
used in the earlier section on Transit Route Information. I believe the "SCAQMD complaint line” is needed by the public, but the sign needs to tell them it is for reporting trucks idling more than 3 minutes.
Of the 16 sections in the second link found above, I suggested minor, but important additions/changes/clarifications in only 6 of them to improve the Ordinance. This shows I support our city’s effort to better protect our residents and the environment with this Ordinance. I hope you will give serious considerations to what I shared above and will add them prior to giving your consensus/vote.
Thank you,
George Hague
You could fill 955 football fields with the amount of warehouses added to the Inland Empire in the past three years.
That’s one finding from a new report on the massive Inland logistics industry.
Building on a 2023 study, “Region in Crisis 2” paints a bleak picture of warehouse sprawl gobbling land the authors say could be used for homes, while instead creating air pollution and threatening jobs with automation.
“The pattern is clear: we are prioritizing housing more goods than people while ignoring the harm that this causes,” the report’s executive summary states.
The report’s authors include Susan Phillips of the Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability at Pitzer College, Mike McCarthy of Riverside Neighbors Opposing Warehouses, Ana Gonzalez of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, and Mary Ann Ruiz of the Sierra Club’s San Gorgonio Chapter.
The groups oppose adding more warehouses in the Inland Empire.
An estimated 40% of the nation’s goods move through Inland warehouses as of 2022. The region’s proximity to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, easy access to interstates and rail lines, plenty of flat, cheap vacant land and a blue-collar workforce fueled a 21st century logistics boom aided by a spike in online shopping demand from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Warehouses are credited with sparing the region the worst of the pandemic’s economic slowdown. Logistics employs tens of thousands of Inland residents and is a major revenue source for Inland cities. Perris’ budget, for example, took a hit when a distribution center closed.
Lisa Anderson, a Claremont-based logistics consultant, said the report is “looking at one side of the situation.”
Warehouses, she said, have “put a lot of effort into being environmentally friendly. They’ve reduced their carbon footprint pretty dramatically over the last several years.”
The industry wants to be environmentally conscious while providing jobs and serving customers, she said.
“The whole logistics industry drives 40% of jobs in Southern California,” Anderson said. “The warehouses are one aspect.
Without (warehouses), you won’t have the industry.”
The report found that since 2023, the Inland Empire has added 55 million square feet of logistics space. If divided into FIFA-regulation soccer fields — typically about 77,000 square feet each — more than 710 World Cup matches could be played at once.The region already had 1 billion square feet of warehouse space three years ago, according to the 2023 report. At least 125 million square feet of Inland warehouses are in the works, and warehouses are outpacing population growth by at least a factor of four, the 2026 report found.
Logistics growth often occurs on land set aside for housing, with parcels being rezoned from residential to industrial, the report read.
As a result, cities such as Ontario, Perris and Rialto and unincorporated areas like Mead Valley in Riverside County have the equivalent of 1,500- to 2,000-square-feet of warehouses per resident — almost equal to a house per person — the report added.
Compared to other parts of Southern California, the Inland Empire has far more than its fair share in warehouses, according to the report.
“This means more pollution, congestion, heat, noise, and loss of open space, compounding an already disproportionate burden on low-income communities of color” despite California’s
environmental justice laws, the report read.
Newer and larger Inland warehouses “are funded by mobile, global capital and most are owned” by out-of-town interests, the report added.
“Of all California cities, Newport Beach is the biggest absentee landlord of warehouse space in the Inland Empire,” the report said. “Newport Beach has no warehouses itself, which means warehouse owners bear zero burden while capturing all profits.”
Three in four warehouse jobs and two-thirds of transportation jobs are vulnerable to being replaced by automation, according to the report.
Those numbers relied on data from the Institute for Spatial Economic Analysis, a University of Redlands-based institute focused on using geographic information systems in business.
While automation might mean fewer positions, the remaining jobs will be more highly skilled and highly paid, Anderson said. “If we can be competitive as a region, we will grow the businesses” and there will be more high-paying jobs, she added.
To make logistics a better neighbor, the report recommends stricter standards for approving freight facilities in disadvantaged communities and an Inland mitigation fee, similar to one imposed at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, to offset problems linked to goods movement.
Cities that haven’t met their state-mandated affordable housing targets should not be allowed to rezone residential land or demolish homes, the report added.
The concerns the study’s authors raise “are precisely why I worked hard to pass AB 98 in 2024,” state Sen. Eloise Gómez Reyes, D-San Bernardino, said via email.
Assembly Bill 98 set statewide development standards for new warehouses, including distance buffers between warehouses and homes and schools. It also requires two replacing housing units for every unit lost to warehouse construction.
“If the report’s findings suggest that this requirement is not being fully realized in practice, that is something we take seriously,” Reyes said. “Good policy is only as effective as its implementation.” P.S. I still hope you will reach out to me to discuss the two links found above and the process for your meeting.
From: George Hague
To: Planning Notices_DG
Cc: Angelica Frausto-Lupo; City Clerk; Steve Quintanilla Subject: Item I.2 Planning Commission & 6 suggestions for the Ordinance Date: Wednesday, June 24, 2026 3:12:39 PM
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9. 8. PEN26-0055 SUPPLEMENTAL PC Staff Report 6.25.26.pdf Supplemental Planning Commission Staff report on Ordinance Good afternoon Planning Commissioner, Wednesday June 24, 2026
I appreciate very much the proposed changes in the Ordinance since the meeting at Palm Middle School.
Below are a 6 minor additions/changes/clarifications that I believe will make the Ordinance even better prior to your consensus/vote this Thursday. The second link from the staff report found above is what I read to make the minor changes found below.
I hope you print this to have with you Thursday during your meeting
power source exists”. As AI Data Centers appear there is more concern on energy power demand. The article in the first link found above puts “emergency” in quotes because toxic diesel generators are sometimes needed to just meet AI regular energy demands. Leaving that wording in our Ordinance would encourage AI Data Centers to locate here because they would be able to easily use very polluting diesel generators. The Attorney General wrote— “Generators: All Warehouse projects developed under the 2024 GPU shall be prohibited from using diesel except for emergencies.” I believe this is better language for the Ordinance.
want to make sure that reapplying "cool roofing" material as needed for the life of the project is included with the current wording.
row of staggered trees that grow 5 feet taller than the warehouse. Trees that filter diesel https://insideclimatenews.org/news/12112025/data-center-diesel-generators- noise-pollution/
Data Centers’ Use of Diesel Generators for Backup Power Is Commonplace—and Problematic - Inside Climate News
pollution as well as light and noise pollution. Tall drought tolerant evergreen trees that help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) and Ozone pollution---where we are the second worst county in all of America. We need to designate in the ordinance that 20 feet of the 50 feet needs to be set aside for such landscaping around the perimeter. Current city standards do not allow for such setbacks for trees to better protect people and the environment.
landscaping the perimeter with the trees that are described in this section for all the reasons mentioned above. Even in the recently approved General Plan Update/Climate Action Plan the city is required to plant 200 trees per year to help reduce GHG and Ozone pollution in our non-attainment area — thereby showing the importance of trees.
storage warehouses need TRU’s plug-ins it is important that the Ordinance requires all Truck Loading Bays to have electrical hookups/plug-ins for electric Auxiliary Power Units (APU).
These APU’s run the truck's air-conditioning and other electrical devices for the driver without running the truck’s diesel engine. This will help reduce reliance on diesel APU’s and the pollution they cause to warehouse workers as well as our own poor air quality.
used in the earlier section on Transit Route Information. I believe the "SCAQMD complaint line” is needed by the public, but the sign needs to tell them it is for reporting trucks idling more than 3 minutes.
Of the 16 sections in the second link found above, I suggested minor, but important additions/changes/clarifications in only 6 of them to improve the Ordinance. This shows I support our city’s effort to better protect our residents and the environment with this Ordinance. I hope you will give serious considerations to what I shared above and will add them prior to giving your consensus/vote.
Thank you,
George Hague
From: Evan Brook
To: Planning Notices_DG
Subject: Comments on I.2 Mitigation Ordinance [Commission Meeting 6/25] Date: Wednesday, June 24, 2026 2:03:37 PM
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Dear Commissioners,
Thank you for taking additional time to look closely at the warehouse mitigation ordinance.
I am concerned about the enforceability of the mitigation ordinance under the City’s current system for monitoring ordinance compliance. The City currently relies on a complaint based system that requires residents to voice concerns before the City will monitor the situation.
Due to the challenge of observing warehouse construction and operations and particular issues posed by a complaint based system for this ordinance, the existing system for monitoring will be inadequate to monitor violations. To correct for these shortcomings, I would like the Commission to add additional funding to the City’s division tasked with monitoring and enforcement and provide that division with a directive to actively monitor warehouse construction and operations.
To understand the challenges preventing effective monitoring and enforcement, consider the measures pertaining to yard equipment. Since yard equipment like forklifts are most commonly used indoors, residents will not be able to directly observe the operations that the ordinance is intended to regulate. Complaint based monitoring will be ineffective in this and similar situations during construction and operations.
A complaint based system for ordinance monitoring and enforcement faces significant challenges in general and for this ordinance in particularly. We should not rely on residents to know the details of this ordinance to conduct monitoring for two reasons: (1) The subject of or motivation for typical complaints may not effectively track, for example, the model year of trucks utilized by warehouses. The City is likely to only find violations of this part of the ordinance incidental to other reasons for a resident’s complaint, which means that the ordinance will not be effectively monitored across all of its requirements. (2) Residents are unlikely to be aware that they can and should submit complaints regarding air quality issues.
Poor air quality is such a common feature of daily life, residents are unlikely to attribute local warehouse construction or operations to its source or even to raise enough concern to motivate a complaint. Residents are unlikely to utilize the complaint system to an extent that allows this ordinance to be properly enforced.
The issues with effectively monitoring and enforcing specific measures in the ordinance and the issues with the complaint based system for monitoring and enforcement lead me to request that the Commission add additional funding to the City’s division tasked with monitoring and enforcement and provide that division with a directive to actively monitor warehouse construction and operations.
Thank you for your consideration on this matter and your service as Commissioners.
Evan Brook
PhD Candidate
Department of Political Science
University of California, Riverside