Cargomatic looks to build 5-acre truck storage yard in Long Beach

Cargomatic has rumbled ahead with plans to build a green trucking facility in West Long Beach, despite an appeal by a business group over impacts on traffic and the environment.

The locally based logistics firm will get a public hearing by the City Council this week on whether to approve the nearly 5-acre trucking and storage container yard at Caspian Avenue and West 12th Street, the Long Beach Press-Enterprise reported.

The project, to be built on two adjacent properties, would replace an unspecified number of buildings in an area the size of two city blocks.

The green trucking and outdoor container storage facility would serve big-rigs en route to the Port of Long Beach.

It would include parking for trucks, cars and bicycles. Cargomatic would also upgrade a building at the site for office use and install five green truck charging stations and five plugins for refrigerated container charging.

“As the (port) continues to receive record cargo volumes, there continues to be a need for available land outside the port to serve as temporary storage and staging,” a city staff report said.

The Port of Long Beach, like the neighboring Port of Los Angeles, has seen cargo volumes drop in recent months. Among the reasons for the decline are companies — skittish over stalled labor talks between shippers and longshore workers — that increasingly favor ports on the Gulf and East coasts.

The Planning Commission originally approved the project in February.

But the Westside Business Association of Long Beach appealed the decision, sending it to the City Council, which will make the final decision on Tuesday.

The business association argued that the proposed facility could have a negative impact on traffic and increase pollution in surrounding neighborhoods.

The project was put under an environmental review prior to the commission’s approval and the Westside Business Association’s subsequent appeal. The review found that any emissions created by the proposed facility would be “less than significant.” 

A staff report said much the same about traffic, noting the truck facility is estimated to generate 254 daily vehicle trips — about half of Long Beach’s threshold of 500 for a lot of its size.

— Dana Bartholomew