Revealed: how warehouses took over southern California ‘like a slow death’
by Maanvi Singh in Bloomington, California and Aliya Uteuova in New York with photographs by Madeline Tolle
“They are taking away our future, little by little, with these constructions”
Juan Diaz, from article “Revealed: How Warehouses took over southern california ‘like a slow death’ by maanvi Singh and Aliya uteuova
An appeal for this project has been filed with the County Board of Supervisors and a date has been set for July 28, 2020. Here is the project link: http://planning.lacounty.gov/case/view/2017-004820
We want you to know the Del Amo Action Committee remains gravely concerned about the proposed Bridgepoint Warehouse Project at 20846 Normandie Ave., on the corner of Torrance Blvd. and Normandie Ave.
In 1994 community members organized the Del Amo Action Committee to inform the neighborhood about their contaminated environment. The neighborhood is located in an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County neglected by authorities for the last 50 years. The area adjacent to our community has been used for industrial developments with no consideration or regard to nearby neighborhoods.
This Committee seeks solutions that can work for all; not just a selected group. We want to live and work for the betterment of our community and society. We want to be able to teach our children how to continue with our mission for a clean and healthy environment.
This Committee is dedicated to being part of the solution and strives to work with everyone concerned, including those responsible for the contamination. We believe this should be taken a step further, and through the community’s participation, we propose that the industries should learn a proper protocol in sharing areas that are near our communities.
This Project has long-lasting consequences and if approved the community will endure a construction process with trucks, equipment, noise and disruption of soil that may be contaminated. After the warehouse is finished, we will endure a company located in our community operating 24 hours a day 7 days a week; with trucks coming and going, noise, increased air pollution from trucks and traffic congestion. A warehouse located directly adjacent to residential communities will impact the health and welfare of all the people living in those adjacent communities. We need positive community based landuses like parks and green zones not another large warehouse. The time for change is right now.
Numerous public agencies commented on the inadequacy of the draft Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration (IS/MND), such as the Attorney General, California Air Resources Board, County of Los Angeles Public Health Department, and South Coast Air Quality Management District. Bridge only made revisions to the IS/MND’s analysis and mitigation after it failed to fly under the radar. Yet, the Final IS/MND still fails to cure the Project’s significant underestimation of truck trips, which directly impacts the lives of the surrounding residents in this known environmental justice community.
Points of a flawed project:
# 1 A warehouse project on this type of contaminated site requires a FULL Environmental Impact Report as guided by the California Environmental Quality Act; not a Mitigated Negative Declaration (meaning the project’s harms can be lessened). The developer’s IS/MND analysis of traffic, air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, human health, environmental justice, and cumulative impacts is fundamentally flawed.
# 2 Cumulative impacts have not been addressed. The Project site is located in an area with a historical legacy of concentrated chemical and industrial uses adjacent to residential areas; which has increased the health burden on families living here. Our close proximity to the 405 and 110 freeways has added to an increased air pollution burden and also makes the area a target for these off port warehouses and distribution centers. The increasing air pollution burden is cumulative and increases with each incompatible land use decision made. This project will yet again add to the cumulative burden of air pollution in our community. A environmental burden screening tool for California communities, CalEnvirScreen, currently ranks the pollution burden in our community at 96% higher than other California Communities, indicating a need for a decrease in the pollution burden in this (proposed project’s) area. https://oehha.ca.gov/calenviroscreen/maps-data
# 3 The Project’s truck trips are being underestimated and they have made statements that they will not exceed the assumed IS/MND truck trips (i.e., 37 round-trips or 74 one-way trips). This project has not provided any adequately enforceable conditions to ensure these limits, as well they understated the warehouses potential to operate as a high cube (high velocity) warehouse, which would require the project to include extra layers of community protections.
# 4 Noise conditions have not been adequately addressed; especially concerns that have been raised about 24 hours 7 day a week operations. These same noise concerns were raised in 2015 against the prior business operating on this site unpermitted for 20-plus years. Adjacent businesses currently operate under a conditional use permit that restricts operations from 7 AM to 6 PM Monday through Friday and 8 AM to 1 PM on Saturday to be more compatible with the adjacent residential areas. The neighborhoods adjacent to this site have been under siege from trucks coming and going and banging around for many decades.
# 5 Lack of Real Enforcement – We cannot rely on Bridge’s self-enforcement of proposed mitigated conditions. Taking into consideration the revisions to the Project’s IS/MND, it is still fundamentally flawed with underestimated truck trip assumptions and not adequately conditioned or enforceable.
At a minimum any permit must include the following conditions:
- Place a restrictive covenant that explicitly caps no more than 74 truck trips and/or 469 PCE total trips at the site, subject regular mandatory reporting requirements akin to the reporting requirements currently proposed under SCAQMD’s proposed Warehouse Indirect Source Rule (“ISR”) or alternative reporting requirement relying on verifiable traffic counts. At a minimum, the required monitoring should include—in addition to a master daily log maintained and made available to County Zoning Enforcement upon request—that: daily counts are monitored in real-time via video surveillance of each driveway accessing the site on a publicly available website; that the future tenant(s) submit monthly or quarterly reports to the County of the daily master log entries with corresponding video files; require monthly/quarterly reports to adequately explain any discrepancies between the daily master log entireties and video files; and that any exceedance of trips (beyond 74 truck single-trips, 37 truck round-trips, or 496 PCE trips) is subject to further discretionary approval by the County.
- The Project should be limited to hours of operations similar to other nearby industrial uses, such as 7 AM to 6 PM Monday through Friday and 8 AM to 1 PM on Saturdays.
If you would like to support efforts to fight this project and to keep the community protected and informed please consider volunteering or donating. Del Amo Action Committee P.O. Box 549 Rosamond, CA 93560: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=M2HADQM7FP23Q&source=url
DAAC Bridgepoint Hearing Comments
April 20, 2020
Regional Planning Commission
c/o Erica Gutierrez, Senior Regional Planner
Department of Regional Planning
County of Los Angeles, CA 90012
egutierrez@planning.lacounty.gov
Subject: Item 6, Regional Planning Commission Hearing April 22, 2020
Bridgepoint South Bay II IS/MND (Project NO. R2017-004820, Conditional Use Permit No. RPPL2017010467, Environmental Assessment No. RPPL2017010468)
Dear Regional Planning Commissioners,
Del Amo Action Committee (DAAC) has already provided extensive comments on the draft IS/MND for the above-referenced warehouse project proposed by Bridgepoint (Bridge). After reviewing Bridge’s response to comments, DAAC and the below signatories respectfully submit these comments—including the attached expert traffic and environmental comments (Exhibit A and B, respectively). By this reference, DAAC incorporates in their entirety these expert comments, as well as any other comments made by the public or public agencies.
First, as fully discussed in the attached expert comments, the IS/MND analysis of traffic, air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, human health, environmental justice, and cumulative impacts (to name a few) is fundamentally flawed by the IS/MND’s underestimating the Project’s truck trips. So too, current conditions of approval, purporting to prohibit the Project from operating as a high cube warehouse or exceed the IS/MND’s assumed truck trips (i.e., 37 round-trips or 74 one-way trips), is not adequately enforceable. This condition must be made more stringent to ensure compliance.
Second, noise conditions have not been adequately addressed; especially concerns that have been raised about 24 hours, 7 days a week operation which is common place for high cube warehouse facilities. These same noise concerns were raised in 2015 against the prior business operating on this site unpermitted for 20-plus years. Adjacent businesses currently operate under a conditional use permit that restricts operations from 7 AM to 6 PM Monday through Friday and 8 AM to 1 PM on Saturday in order to be more compatible with adjacent residential areas.
Third, given how woefully inadequate the draft IS/MND was, the Commission should take great pause before it relies on Bridge’s self-enforcement of conditions of approval. Here, numerous public agencies comment on the inadequacy of the draft IS/MND, such as the Attorney General, California Air Resources Board, County of Los Angeles Public Health Department, and South Coast Air Quality Management District. Bridge only made revisions to the IS/MND/s analysis and mitigation after it failed to fly under the radar. Yet, the Final IS/MND still fails to cure the Projects significant underestimation of truck trips, which directly impact the lives of the surrounding residents in this known environmental justice community.
In sum, notwithstanding the revisions to the Project’s IS/MND, it is still fundamentally flawed with underestimated truck trip assumptions and not adequately conditioned. This Project has long-lasting consequences that should be decided by the Board of Supervisors. For these reasons, and the reasons discussed elsewhere in the Project’s record, DAAC and the below signatures respectfully request the Regional Planning Commission the following:
- Stay approval of the Projects conditional use permit (CUP) and environmental approvals until a CEQA-compliant environmental impact report for the Project is prepared; or
- Refer the item to the Board of Supervisors with the recommendation that at minimum the CUP be subject to the following conditions:
- Place a restrictive covenant that explicit caps no more than 74 truck trips and/or 469 PCE total trips at the Site, subject regular mandatory reporting requirements akin to the reporting requirements currently proposed under SCAQMD’s proposed Warehouse Indirect Source Rule (“ISR”)31 or alternative reporting requirement relying on verifiable traffic counts.32 At minimum, the required monitoring should include—in addition to a master daily log maintained and made available to County Zoning Enforcement upon request—that: daily counts are monitored in real-time via video surveillance of each driveway accessing the Site on a publicly available website; that the future tenant(s) submit monthly or quarterly reports to the County of the daily master log entries with corresponding video files; require monthly/quarterly reports to adequately explain any discrepancies between the daily master log entireties and video files; and that any exceedance of trips (beyond 74 truck single-trips, 37 truck round-trips, or 496 PCE trips) is subject to further discretionary approval by the County.
- The Project should be limited to the hours of operations comparable to other nearby industrial uses, including 7 AM to 6 Pm Monday through Friday and 8 AM to 1 PM on Saturday
Sincerely,
Del Amo Action Committee
Cynthia Babich
Cynthia Medina
Florence Gharibian
Jan Kalani
Bruce Bansen
Rosa Vega