New large warehouses would have to be several hundred feet or more from homes, schools and other sensitive land uses if a late-hour bill approved by California’s Legislature becomes law.
AB 98 passed the Assembly 47-16 and the state Senate 22-16 on Saturday, Aug. 31, hours before a deadline for bills to make it out of the Legislature. Gov. Gavin Newsom has until Sept. 30 to sign the bill and if he does, it would take effect Jan. 1.
Sponsored by Assemblymembers Eloise Gómez Reyes, D-Colton, and Juan Carrillo, D-Palmdale, AB 98 is the Legislature’s answer to long-held complaints about air pollution, truck traffic, noise and other problems associated with locating warehouses, ranging from several hundred thousand to 1 million square feet in size, near neighborhoods.
Assemblymember Eloise Gómez Reyes, D-Colton, says her bill requiring buffers between warehouses and homes isn’t perfect, but that immediate action is needed. (File photo by Stan Lim, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
Critics argue cities and counties rubber-stamp warehouses without proper public health guardrails. State officials have said warehouses disproportionately end up next to communities of color and low-income neighborhoods.
AB 98 would require, with certain exceptions, that new warehouses be built on arterial roads, collector roads, major thoroughfares or local roads primarily used by commercial traffic.
It also would require new warehouses to have 300-foot setbacks between sensitive uses and the nearest loading bay if that warehouse is built in an industrial area. In non-industrial areas or land that was rezoned to industrial, the setback would be 500 feet.
The bill also would impose landscaping and screening requirements, such as a wall or landscape berm, to shield warehouses from their neighbors, with landscaping buffers ranging from 50 to 100 feet.
Depending on their size, new warehouses would also have to use zero-emission technology, meet energy efficiency standards and ban trucks from idling their engines.
AB 98 faced strong opposition from business groups who fear the bill will kill jobs — the logistics industry is a major Inland Empire employer — and environmental justice advocates who believed the bill didn’t go far enough.
“The bill sets dangerously low standards for warehouse siting and operations that would fail to protect the people who will be the unenviable neighbors of new and expanding facilities,” read a letter to California elected leaders signed by a coalition of environmental groups.
“We know that if given a chance next year, we can work together to create a comprehensive policy that will promote the long-term economic and environmental sustainability of communities throughout the state.”
In a news release, Reyes said she did not think the distance buffers required by AB 98 do not “go far enough to protect our most vulnerable communities.”
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“It is also clear that the status quo is unacceptable and immediate action is needed on this issue,” said Reyes, whose effort last year to require 1,000-foot buffers fell short. “I believe AB 98 is an important step forward and contains many provisions that will better protect communities in the Inland Empire and across California.”