California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday signed a law to limit new warehouses from being built close to homes, schools and hospitals.
Newsom's signing aims to curb pollution from warehouses by imposing minimum distances between facilities and sensitive sites. The law requires new or expanded warehouses’ loading docks to be 300-500 feet from neighbors' property lines, depending on a neighborhood's zoning.
The law applies statewide but is aimed at addressing development in California's Inland Empire, east of Los Angeles and home to some of the worst air pollution in the country, as well as other regions of Southern California where the logistics industry is growing, like Kern County.
Other states like New York and New Jersey have limited warehouses through laws that require developers to account for cumulative environmental effects on nearby neighborhoods. California's law explicitly targets warehouses through setbacks and other requirements like electric vehicle charging stations and restrictions on truck routes.
Business and environmental groups had both fiercely lobbied Newsom to veto the measure after lawmakers sent the bill, AB 98, to his desk late last month. Business groups argued it would restrict economic development, while environmentalists said it didn't go far enough.
It emerged from last-minute negotiations in the Assembly, with Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas brokering a compromise between earlier proposals from lawmakers representing San Bernardino County, one of the state's most warehouse-dense regions. The bill was a priority for Rivas, whose house is scheduled to vote on one of Newsom’s priorities — a proposal to manage gasoline prices by requiring oil refineries to keep more supplies on hand — on Tuesday in a special legislative session.
In addition to the setbacks, the law requires warehouses to include energy-efficiency and EV-ready measures, as well as other elements like planted or hard buffers, separate entrances for trucks and air pollution monitoring. It also limits truck traffic to commercial roads and requires developers to replace demolished housing at a 2-to-1 ratio.
The authors presented it as a compromise between those who support logistics development for the employment and tax revenue it brings and residents of areas like San Bernardino who lament the associated truck traffic and its contributions to what is consistently ranked as the worst air pollution in the nation.
Several large unions representing retail employees and construction workers helped negotiate the bill, including the California State Council of Laborers and United Food and Commercial Workers. Environmental and business groups were also at the table, but didn't formally endorse the bill.
A large coalition of environmental groups had called the bill “toothless” and said that it undermined efforts to establish stronger local regulations in places like Riverside County, which has voluntary guidelines to site warehouses at least 300 feet away from homes and schools and binding size limits on facilities within 800 feet. They argued for a 1,000-foot setback, citing a 2005 report from the California Air Resources Board that recommended it as a minimum distance between distribution centers and sensitive sites.
“We need the legislature and the governor to commit to working with us next year to get real protections for our communities,” said Andrea Vidaurre, co-founder of Inland Empire-based People’s Collective for Environmental Justice, in a statement responding to the signing.
The League of California Cities and California State Association of Counties, along with a large coalition of business groups, had said the bill would “hamper employment opportunities” and “undermine local control.”
These groups also called for changes as soon as the legislature reconvenes, demanding that the lawmakers and bill supporters "fix these issues immediately" in a statement from a group including the California Business Roundtable and California Business Properties Association.
Other business groups expressed more support, including the California Chamber of Commerce, which had helped negotiate the bill. "While any bill of this magnitude is expected to have future clean up, the bill will help maintain California’s position as a leader in both economic innovation and environmental stewardship,” read a joint statement.
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