A proposed development that would include a 2.7-million-square-foot warehouse along with office space and other changes to Bloomington is facing opposition.
The project would displace about 200 Bloomington residents and add to pollution in the area, about a dozen protesters said in a rally before the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, Feb. 9.
The developer disputes the number, saying that about 80 property owners are selling voluntarily, and no one will be forced to sell.
“That number is fabricated,” said Tim Howard, a partner at Howard Industrial Partners in Orange, the group proposing the project, said of the claim that about 200 would be displaced. “There’s no one who is moving involuntarily.”
Some properties in the area have two or three families living on a rented property, said Thomas Rocha, co-organizer of Concerned Neighbors of Bloomington, a group that formed to oppose another warehouse project and now is fighting Howard’s plans.
The project — which would include a warehouse, manufacturing and office space — would build more houses at another site to offset the number of houses lost. The homes would be available for sale to anyone.
It would bring in about $20 million worth of infrastructure, about $8 million in tax revenue per year, and a sheriff’s deputy with an office in Bloomington, Howard said. The unincorporated area is now served by deputies based in Fontana.
The agreement for the deputy and a place for the officer to work is tied to the project, he said.
But many of those in the area didn’t know about the proposal until opponents talked to them and don’t want to leave, said Ana Gonzalez, finance and administration director for the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, which led the protest along with Concerned Neighbors of Bloomington.
“This will push out families that don’t have anywhere to go,” Gonzalez said. “They bought their homes in Bloomington to retire in. We’re asking for a grocery store or playground to be built here, not a warehouse.”
The 213-acre proposal is now going through a process of environmental review, after which the Board of Supervisors will be asked to vote on it. Construction of all parts of the project is expected to last about 20 years.
It is surrounded by Santa Ana Avenue to the north, Jurupa Avenue to the south, Maple Avenue and Linden Avenue to the east, and Alder Avenue to the west. Locust Avenue runs through the site.
Opponents are also concerned about diesel and other pollution affecting nearby homes and students at Bloomington High School, Zimmerman Elementary School and Ruth O’ Harris Middle School, which are all within several blocks of the project borders.
“If you’re saying yes to this project, you’re saying yes to dumping pollution on two elementary schools and a high school that are right on the borders of this project,” said Gabriela Mendez, a community organizer with the environmental group. “I talked to the residents myself, and I know that a lot of folks are not OK with this.”
The project is certified through LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, to be as environmentally friendly as possible, Howard said. He said the warehouse presumably will be served by diesel trucks for now, although he noted an executive order signed by Gov. Gaviin Newsom would require vehicles to be 100% zero-emission by 2045.
Bloomington has among the worst air quality in California, which environmentalists say comes largely from traffic to the many warehouses built in the area in recent years and contributes to asthma and other diseases. Air-quality concerns have led to lawsuits against other proposed warehouses in surrounding cities.
Four-hundred eighty new housing units would be built north of San Bernardino Avenue, south of Hawthorne Avenue, east of Locust Avenue and west of existing single-family houses in an area that is now developed with a mix of single-family houses and vacant parcels.
As a result, as required by the Housing Crisis Act of 2019, the number of homes in Bloomington would not decrease.
If approved, the project would probably break ground at the end of 2022, Howard said.
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