The plan was approved 3-1. The 9-acre property would be a storage yard and maintenance facility in the unincorporated community of Bloomington and could serve up to 260 trucks a day. The development would be on Cedar Avenue, which is one of the communities’ main thoroughfares.
Gary Grossich is the Vice-Chair of the Bloomington Municipal Advisory Committee and says this development will bring an unwanted element to the community. Gary says, "It’s going to bring more of an unwanted element to one of the main thoroughfares of the community, and this project if it was in a City if it was in Rialto, Fontana, or Colton. This type of project wouldn’t be allowed on one of the main streets.”
Another contentious issue with the property is that it had been zoned previously for commercial use for shops and not for commercial, industrial use. Anna Gonzalez is the Interim Executive Director at The Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, which is based in Jurupa Valley.
Gonzalez says, “The zoning of these particular areas had been designed to either build residential or commercial, so that means eateries, small business offices, or things like that. They were not designed for industrial, logistics, trucking.”
There were also concerns about the environmental impact that it would have on the surrounding community. Commissioner Kareem Gongora was the only one to vote no on the project and is worried about how this will impact the families living around the proposed site.
Commissioner Gongora stated, "And the emissions from the trucks will definitely create a lot of issues with congestion and noise in the region. But even with the already pollution burdens communities there, I think overall it’s going to give additional emissions that will only create more of a hazard for our frontline families.”
Fourteen people spoke out against the project at the meeting, as well as the county receiving 125 letters of opposition and one letter of support. The property proposal will now be sent to the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors and be heard in the next coming weeks.
I attempted to contact Commissioners Jonathan Weldy and Michael Stoffel, who voted yes on the plan and received no response.
