The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday to re-approve a controversial warehouse project in Bloomington despite ongoing pushback by residents and environmental groups.
The Bloomington Business Park Specific Plan, first approved by the board in 2022, will bring more than two-million square feet of warehouses on 213 acres.
Two groups — the People’s Collective for Environmental Justice and the Center for Community Action for Environmental Justice — sued the county shortly after its initial approval, arguing that the county violated the California Environmental Quality Act by not adequately assessing the project’s impacts.
San Bernardino County Judge Donald Alvarez halted construction of the Bloomington Business Park in 2024 after finding issues with the review, and the aforementioned groups also sued the county over allegations that it was breaking state housing laws earlier this year. That lawsuit was eventually dismissed.
Residents and environmentalists again packed the government center’s chambers, as they did last month when the planning commission voted to recommend the business park’s approval to supervisors.
Juan Ramirez, whose children attend schools near the project, said that he’s disturbed by the changes that have occurred in Bloomington in the sixteen years he’s lived there. He told the board that he remembers an area with no traffic and “where people could ride horses” to get around.
“But now with the arrival of this business park, they displaced hundreds of families and demolished hundreds of houses,” Ramirez said in Spanish through an interpreter. “And as a consequence of that, residents have been impacted. There’s a reduction in sales, school attendance and even church attendance.”
County planners said during their presentation that the project’s recirculated environmental report complies with CEQA and addresses Judge Alvarez’s ruling. They also said that the county provided opportunities for public input through workshops and worked with Colton Joint Unified School District and community stakeholders to ensure information was accessible to Spanish speakers.
Most supervisors, with the exception of Supervisor Paul Cook, voted to approve the project again, despite the pushback.
Fifth District Supervisor Joe Baca Jr., who represents Bloomington, voted in support of the project. However, he asked for the business park’s approval to include conditions that prohibit data centers from being built there.
Brookfield Properties, which proposed the project, said that there are no data centers planned.
People also raised concerns about whether the business park complies with state housing laws. Katie McKeon, an attorney with the Western Center on Law & Poverty Law, claims that the county’s approval of the project "exacerbates" the area’s housing crisis through the demolishment of homes.
McKeon also made claims that the Bloomington Business Park Specific Plan was not in compliance with the California Housing Crisis Act (HCA), which requires developers to replace certain demolished housing for low-income residents.
“This analysis is not surprising, given that the county and the developer resisted acknowledging the Housing Crisis Act until the state issued them a letter saying that you needed to comply with the law,” said McKeon.
Brookfield said in a letter to the county on Sep. 17 that HCA requirements didn't apply to the Bloomington Business Park. That was in response to a letter that the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) addressed to the county on Sep. 15 in a letter that told the county the project needed to comply with HCA.
The county said in an emailed statement to KVCR that the developer will have to build two replacement units for protected housing under the act.
“The developer may satisfy the condition by contracting with another entity to develop some or all of the required replacement housing,” said county spokeswoman Lauren Howland. “The replacement housing may be located elsewhere within unincorporated San Bernardino County.”
HCD said after the vote on Tuesday that they have not made a determination as to whether the County’s attempt adequately meets those requirements.
The People’s Collective for Environmental Justice said in a statement that they’re disappointed the county refuses to follow state law.
“The developer and the county are in such a rush to approve the Bloomington Business Park project that they continue to ignore their obligations…” said the statement. “The county continues to turn a blind eye to the damages caused by these destructive projects.”
