Using Tuolumne Tactic, Moreno Valley Approves Development of 40 Million Square Feet
- Josh Stephens
- Jan 11, 2016
- 6 min read
For years, National Football League teams have been trying to find places to play in the Los Angeles area. Soon enough, 700 of them could move to Moreno Valley, with room to spare.
In what may be the largest single commercial development in the history of California - or possibly the universe - the World Logistics Center will, as currently envisioned, cover 40 million square feet, most of which will be dedicated to storage, transshipment, and other functions related to the logistics industry. It will be more than twice as large as New York City's much-heralded Hudson Yards project.
WLC was approved last summer on a 3-2 vote of the Moreno Valley City Council. Following the filing of as many as nine California Environmental Quality lawsuits against the project, that vote was reaffirmed in November as the council voted to adopt a ballot initiative to approve the project - using the so-called "Tuolumne Tactic" after developer Highland Fairview qualified a measure for the ballot. It is believed to be the first time the tactic has been used after a project had been approved by local elected officials and CEQA lawsuits had been filed.
"I think it's as important a choice as any that a council has made in my some 50 years of being a professor at UCR-.and 33 years in elected office," said Ron Loveridge, director of UC-Riverside's Center for Sustainable Suburban Development and former Mayor of Riverside, referring to the council's initial approval of the project.
Tethered to the ports of Los Angeles and Long beach by rail lines and freeways, the Inland Empire has long provided the real estate where overseas shipments get stored and redirected en route to consumers across the country. Unlike many of its neighbor, though, the relatively new city of Moreno Valley (incorporated in 1984), has had only a small share of the logistics industry, which employs over 100,000 workers in the region.
