It’s got an overhaul, a new name, a new pitch and perhaps, a new lease on life.
But a proposal to develop hundreds of acres of ex-March Air Force Base land abutting Riverside faces the same determined opposition from residents who worry it could bring mega-warehouses, toxic air and road-clogging trucks to their backyards, though the current proposal doesn’t call for warehouses to be built.
The March Joint Powers Commission on Monday evening, May 12, will review plans for the proposal formerly known as the West Campus Upper Plateau project.
The project, now called March Innovation Hub, emerged earlier this year from procedural limbo stemming from a tense public hearing in summer attended by hundreds, many of whom waved “No More Warehouses” signs.
Since then, the developer, a limited liability company linked to the Lewis Group of Companies of Upland, downsized the project to try and make it more palatable to residents in Riverside’s Mission Grove and Orangecrest neighborhoods.
The developer also launched a public relations campaign, complete with a website, text messages and social media outreach, to rally support for the project. It’s being billed as “Smart Growth for Everyone” that will support 3,100 jobs and add $52 million in tax revenue while protecting the environment.
Critics aren’t convinced.
“This is the same unacceptable project that (it’s) been the entire time,” said Mike McCarthy, a member of Riverside Neighbors Opposing Warehouses, which is spearheading opposition to the project.
The developer said the project will benefit its neighbors in several ways.
The hub “would transform unused, surplus military property into the biggest technology campus in the region, creating thousands of good-paying jobs, serving as a catalyst for productive new businesses and generating millions for the benefit of local taxpayers,” Lewis executive Randall Lewis said via email.
He said the developer’s revised proposal will “encourage research, technology, and start-up incubators for new businesses” and that “no speculative warehouses are being proposed.”
“Failure to approve the revised plan risks the loss of these benefits and ensures years of stagnation and loss for this valuable property,” Lewis added.
The project area used to be part of March Air Force Base until it downsized to an air reserve base in the early 1990s. The March Joint Powers Authority will have jurisdiction over the site until July 1, when the agency cedes its land-use responsibilities to Riverside County.
The 818-acre property south of Alessandro Boulevard, west of Meridian Parkway, east of Barton Street and north of Grove Community Drive — The Grove Community Church borders the site — is largely undeveloped save for old munitions bunkers.
The developer originally applied to construct two buildings — one totaling 1.25 million square feet, the other being 587,000 square feet — eyed for warehousing or manufacturing.
Residents rallied to stop the project, fearing it would sully the skies with toxic emissions from warehouse-bound diesel trucks.
Critics, who said the area already has enough warehouses, warned that local roads would be overwhelmed by truck traffic, massive industrial buildings would spoil the scenery and the project’s jobs wouldn’t offer living wages.
Following an hours-long hearing in June, the commission — two Riverside County supervisors and two councilmembers each from Moreno Valley, Perris and Riverside — voted to table the project, a move the commission’s attorney said amounted to a denial.
Arguing it was being denied due process, the developer asked commissioners to take the project off the table, which happened in March.
Compared to its predecessor, the innovation hub has 20% less building space, 35% fewer emissions, 38% less traffic and 42% more open space, according to the hub website.
Almost 600 acres of the site, including a 40- to 60-acre park, would be open space. Plans also call for a fire station and development focused on clean energy, aviation, health care and other tech-based businesses.
What’s not included are any specific plans to construct buildings. But “manufacturing, warehousing, e-commerce and associated uses” are allowed on 143 acres — roughly 3 million square feet — slated for industrial development, according to a commission report.
The project could generate 1,678 truck trips a day, the report states. Those estimates assume a 2.56 million-square-foot high-cube warehouse and 500,000-square-foot cold storage warehouse are built.
If the commission approves the hub, any building plans would need Riverside County’s approval, March authority Executive Director Grace Martin said via email.
For McCarthy, warehouses remain the biggest stumbling block.
“They have not changed a single square foot of that component,” he said. “We’ve been asking for the same thing for the entire time. We want no warehouses and no industrial zoning.”
McCarthy also objects to the developer’s marketing campaign.
“Is this the standard that we’re now setting, where a community is going to be essentially bombarded with advertising for land-use projects?”
He added: “I don’t think that should be the way it’s done … but that’s the world we live in, where Wall Street gets to market to local communities to put warehouses in our backyards.”
Monday’s meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. at the County Administrative Center, 4080 Lemon St. in downtown Riverside.
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