Environmental Justice Group Sues to Halt Warehouse Infrastructure Plan Threatening Homes in San Bernardino and Highland

On behalf of the San Bernardino and Highland residents it represents, People’s Collective for Environmental Justice Thursday filed a lawsuit in San Bernardino County Superior Court challenging the Inland Valley Development Agency’s plan to build infrastructure in support of warehouse and industrial development that could displace thousands of residents and raze hundreds of units of affordable housing.

In its petition to the court, PCEJ exposes the IVDA’s egregious violations of the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, a landmark law that requires IVDA to fully inform the community of the environmental risks from its infrastructure project and the future development it will facilitate.

“Hundreds of community members made clear their opposition to massive warehouse and industrial development in their neighborhood, and in many cases supplanting their neighborhood, yet the IVDA attempted to ignore residents and force a harmful development project forward anyway,” said Brenda Huerta Soto of PCEJ. “This legal action calls out their disdain for community concern in violation of California law.”

In 2024, the Inland Valley Development Agency abandoned its “Airport Gateway Specific Plan” proposal following extensive criticism from the community and from the California Attorney General’s office. The project would have designated a large area north of San Bernardino International Airport—including entire neighborhoods of existing homes—for warehouse, industrial, and commercial development, while building out infrastructure to support the new development.

The IVDA, in its original plan, acknowledged that it would destroy hundreds of homes and require “relocation” of thousands of residents.

While the IVDA appeared to table the Airport Gateway proposal, it immediately began working on a new proposal dubbed the Inland Valley Infrastructure Corridor Project, which would build out much of the same infrastructure to support warehouses and industrial uses. But this time, IVDA chose to obscure and downplay the impacts to the surrounding community.

The IVDA’s primary tool in advancing the IVIC is a flawed Environmental Impact Report that fails to meet CEQA’s informational standards and includes conclusions unsupported by substantial evidence.

“The IVDA has to come clean about what they’re really doing here,” said attorney Kevin Bundy of the firm Shute, Mihaly &Weinberger LLP. “If IVDA wants to build infrastructure to support industrial and warehouse expansion at the expense of existing neighborhoods, they need to be honest about the fact that homes could be demolished, residents could be forced out, and remaining community members could be left dealing with noise, truck traffic, air pollution, and safety hazards for many years to come.”

People’s Collective for Environmental Justice is represented by Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP.