Description: Challenge to approvals for logistics center project.
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Center for Community Action & Environmental Justice v. City of Moreno Valley
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 04/29/2021 Settlement Agreement Download Settlement agreement signed. Developers of Southern California Warehouse Project Agreed to Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Measures to Resolve CEQA Claims. Environmental groups and the developer of a 2,610-acre warehouse project in the City of Moreno Valley in southern California reached an agreement that resolves pending California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) claims of the environmental groups. Claims brought by other parties are still pending, but the environmental groups agreed not to oppose the project should the courts require reconsideration of its approvals. The settlement agreement requires the developer to ensure that specified actions to address greenhouse gas emissions and air quality are carried out, as well as actions related to biological resources and community benefits. The greenhouse gas emissions and air quality measures include grant programs for electric trucks and cars; on-site solar generation commitments; contributions to a solar advocacy fund; on-site electric vehicle chargers; electrification of equipment; and provision of lower-carbon hydrogen to tenants if available under commercially reasonable terms. 09/23/2015 Petition for Writ of Mandate Download Petition for writ of mandate filed. Environmental Groups Mounted CEQA Challenge to Logistics Center. Five environmental groups commenced a lawsuit against the City of Moreno Valley, California, alleging that it failed to comply with CEQA when it approved the World Logistics Center Project. The groups alleged that the project would cover 2,610 acres and more than 40 million square feet, which would make the warehouse complex larger than Central Park in New York City. The groups alleged numerous procedural and substantive failures in the City’s CEQA review, including that the final environmental impact report (EIR) failed to analyze and mitigate mobile source greenhouse gas emissions based on the allegedly faulty premise that such emissions are capped by California law. -
Paulek v. City of Moreno Valley
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 11/24/2020 Opinion Download Petitioners' appeal dismissed as moot and City's cross-appeal dismissed in exercise of the court's discretion. California Appellate Court Dismissed Appeal Concerning Greenhouse Gas Analysis for Logistics Campus After City Completed New Review. After the City of Moreno (City) completed a revised environmental impact report (EIR) for a proposed “logistics campus,” the California Court of Appeal dismissed as moot an appeal that concerned whether the City properly relied on California’s cap-and-trade program when it considered the project’s impacts on greenhouse gas emissions under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The trial court concluded that the City’s reasoning that greenhouse gas emissions subject to cap-and-trade requirements did not count against the significance threshold did not violate CEQA. Prior to the City’s issuance of the revised EIR, the Court of Appeal issued a tentative decision finding that the original EIR’s analysis of greenhouse gas emissions did violate CEQA. The revised EIR did not consider the cap-and-trade program and instead required that the project’s greenhouse gas emissions be mitigated to “net zero.” The Court of Appeal found that the petitioners failed to point to evidence that the revised EIR continued to rely on the cap-and-trade program. The Court of Appeal also found that neither the “continuing public interest” nor the “recurrence of the controversy” exceptions to mootness applied.