Warehouses won't go near schools

Divided City Council votes 3-2 to reject 541,000-square-foot industrial complex

A majority of Fontana leaders on Tuesday rejected a proposal to build three new warehouses next to Jurupa Hills High School.

After 25 minutes of public comment, Councilmembers Peter Garcia, John Roberts and Jesse Sandoval opposed a pitch to change the land-use and zoning designations of 24.4 acres from residential to industrial so the facilities could be built on the north side of Santa Ana Avenue, between Citrus and Oleander avenues.

Mayor Acquanetta Warren and Councilmember Phillip Cothran Jr. favored the project, so long as certain contingencies were included in any approval.

The councilmembers who opposed the proposal did not explain why ahead of or immediately following the vote.

Newport Beach developer Acacia Real Estate Group sought to build a trio of warehouses covering nearly 541,000 square feet on Jurupa Hills High’s southern border, adjacent to the school’s baseball and softball fields.

Zoned for 507 residential units, the project site also abuts Fontana Adult School and Citrus High School to the east.

An updated proposal presented to the City Council Tuesday included additional space for landscaping between the northern boundary of the subject property and the southside of Jurupa Hills High.

Furthermore, the developer increased the public benefit fee from $2.3 million to $3.3 million.

City leaders received dozens of letters and emails in opposition to the project ahead of Tuesday’s meeting.

To address concerns over trucks idling and driving so close to the high school’s ballfields, Cothran proposed amending the General Plan, which guides development in Fontana, so the stretch of Santa Ana Avenue between Citrus and Oleander avenues could become a city truck route.

Warren agreed, and suggested any approval of the project Tuesday be conditioned on a subsequent council decision to amend the General Plan for Santa Ana Avenue.

That proposal did not sway the majority of the council, however.

Many of those gathered at City Hall Tuesday cheered the outcome.

The three warehouses would have had 69 loading docks between them and generated unavoidable environmental impacts by way of greenhouse gas emissions, noise and transportation, according to a city report.

The facilities would have given Jurupa Hills High a southern neighbor to match its northern one.

Two years ago, a majority of Fontana leaders approved a 206,000-squarefoot warehouse for Slover and Oleander avenues, a decision that spurred two separate lawsuits in 2021 which the city and state Attorney General Rob Bonta settled last year.