Inland Empire Cities Fail to Meet Warehouse Regulation Deadline, Advocates Warn

The Moreno Valley Library was enlivened by residents and planners who assessed the Inland Empire’s logistics future on Saturday, Feb. 21. The Freight Communities Action Coalition (FCAC) convened to dissect the rollout of Assembly Bill 98 (AB 98)—the 2024 warehouse siting law—and its new legislative partner passed in October 2025, Senate Bill 415 (SB 415), as cities scramble to comply with new county and statewide rules. 

AB 98 was designed to shield neighborhoods from industrial sprawl by mandating that new warehouses align with designated truck routes by 2028 and January 1, 2026 for Warehouse Concentration Region (WCR) counties and cities, including Riverside County and San Bernardino County along with the cities of Chino, Colton, Fontana, Jurupa Valley, Moreno Valley, Ontario, Perris, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, Rialto, Riverside and San Bernardino. The recent FCAC summit highlighted a growing urgency among Inland Empire advocates because, for those in attendance, the event was a critical assessment of policy language and whether AB 98 and SB 415 can protect vulnerable frontline communities exposed to heavy diesel traffic. 

Inland Empire Community News (IECN) requested comments from the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB). Neither agency responded by the time of publication. 

The summit began with organizers presenting a tier system ranking jurisdictions according to their compliance with AB 98. According to the presenters, little progress has been made in Riverside County, whereas San Bernardino County jurisdictions have mostly implemented truck routes in compliance with the new ordinances. 

Karla Cervantes, a Mead Valley resident and organizer with the Sierra Club and FCAC, said she was encouraged by the community turnout. But she remains frustrated with those cities and counties she says have not done enough. 

“It’s disappointing,” she said. “For the most part, a lot of them are behind schedule, so that’s not a good thing.”

Cervantes emphasized what she sees as a failure to meet the bill’s “diligent effort” requirement for community engagement. 

Steve Quintanilla, city attorney for the City of Moreno Valley, spoke to attendees and echoed Cervantes’ concerns. 

“The significant term we’re struggling with, or phrase, is ‘diligent effort,’ because under the law, we are required . . . to make a ‘diligent effort’ with respect to community outreach and community engagement over truck routes,” Quintanilla said, adding that he’s unsure how to best meet the policy’s diligent effort requirements. “But I can tell you, anything you can think of is good.”

Quintanilla said they are working with the Attorney General’s Office to establish an “air quality abatement fee” for warehouse developers to directly fund home or building improvements for those who live near warehouses and commercial truck routes.

“We’re currently negotiating with the Attorney General’s Office on an abatement fee, instead of abatement air quality fee, where the proposal is that we’re going to require each developer of a warehouse facility to pay [for upgrades],” Quintanilla said. “We haven’t decided on the number yet . . but that fee is going to be put into an abatement fund and made available to residents or occupants of sensitive receptors to put in thick windows and replace or repair or upgrade their HVAC systems.”

For 18-year-old Perris resident Jose Osuna, the summit marked a deeper commitment to civic responsibility. 

He recently attended a Perris City Council meeting concerning the Harvest Landing development. He said he was concerned about the project and described seeing trucks idling near his neighborhood.

“These trucks shouldn’t even be driving through residential areas in the first place,” he said, adding, “I don’t want them to be emitting pollution near my backyard.”

Enforcement dominated much of the summit discussion. Attendees suggested that cameras and license plate readers be used to enforce truck routes. However, automatic license plate readers (ALPR) pose problems. 

Lieutenant Deirdre Vickers, the public information officer for the City of Moreno Valley, wrote in an email that: ALPRs “are not used in our city to issue truck route citations,” because they “generally cannot distinguish between a truck making a local delivery on a restricted route and one violating the restriction,” adding that ALPRs are used for criminal investigations—not traffic violations.

According to Vickers, roadway signage and city navigation are a persistent challenge. 

“Many drivers rely heavily on GPS navigation systems, which often do not distinguish between standard passenger vehicle routes and designated truck routes,” resulting in drivers inadvertently entering “restricted areas, leading to unintended traffic violations and increased enforcement issues,” Vickers wrote.   

While truck route enforcement remains an ongoing issue, Riverside Neighbors Opposing Warehouses (R-Now) Co-founder Mike McCarthy expressed sympathy for drivers and added that more needs to be done to hold warehouse operators accountable for truck route violations.  

“The compliance of trucks driving on non-designated truck routes shouldn’t simply fall on the independent contractors who are making the deliveries, trying to be on time and who have a schedule to meet,” McCarthy said. “It needs to at least partially fall on the businesses that are employing them, even if they have contracts in place that explicitly limit their liability.”

Joseph Mendoza, a freelance civic planner, spoke to IECN and urged residents to learn more about where they live, whether they live in incorporated cities or unincorporated county areas. 

For example, he encouraged residents to use Riverside County’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) portal, which he referred to as the “gold standard.” Using the county’s GIS resource, Mendoza explained that residents can pull a report on their parcel to access important information to help them understand where they live and how they can engage with their community.

For Osuna, he’s compelled to act because the struggle extends beyond a single city, affecting the common good of the region.

“The fight is not just in Perris,” he said, harkening on the power of individuals to impact their communities. “Now that I know I can do it, I want to do it.”