Colton City Council approves temporary 45-day moratorium on warehouse development

On May 4, Colton City Council made a motion to approve a temporary 45-day moratorium on the establishment, expansion and modification of warehouses, distribution centers, and truck storage facilities that are located in the city.

“The purpose of this moratorium is to allow staff to conduct an ordinance update to our zoning code; items that need to be evaluated include warehouse implications like adjacent land use, increased truck traffic, damage to local streets, loss of potential economic revenue, air quality and environmental health. The city needs time to study these issues and return with these ordinance amendments,” said City of Colton Director Mark Tomich.

During the public comment portion of the discussion, numerous speakers expressed fear of losing their warehouse job if the moratorium is passed.

“As a point of clarification, several public comments expressed fear of losing their jobs. But, it’s my understanding that this moratorium affects new and expansion of forthcoming development …so Mr. Tomich can you clarify this, we aren’t taking anything away are we?” asked Councilmember Dr. G.

Tomich replied, “This is simply a timeout while we develop an ordinance to address the industry impacts such as safety risks, city streets, traffic congestion and impacts from overloaded trucks. With that being said, all current operations can continue in the meantime.”

Mayor Frank Navarro also confirmed that this moratorium is only an opportunity to strengthen its current ordinance to ensure an elevated quality of life for all residents in the city.

“This is a brief timeout. We also recognize that we have two projects in queue right now that will not be affected by this moratorium. There are no other projects coming in, so right now is the perfect time to do it; we understand that 45 days is not much, but it’ll give us enough time for our staff to put the scope of work together to identify all areas in question for the benefit of the community,” said Navarro.

Navarro also assured city council, city staff and the public that the moratorium does not mean the city will not be allowing forthcoming warehouse developments, but allowing them time to identify how to navigate the future growth, traffic, noise and pollution, which are all impacts of development.

For more information, visit www.ci.colton.ca.us.