Gov. Gavin Newsom holds the power to complicate the lives of industrial developers in the Inland Empire and the rest of California after the 11th-hour passage of a bill that would require buffers between big warehouses and residential neighborhoods.
The bill passed the state Assembly and Senate hours before a deadline of the recently concluded legislative session, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.
Newsom has until Sept. 30 to sign the bill, veto it or let it expire without his signature, a move known as a pocket veto.
The legislation lands squarely on the hottest segment of commercial real estate, which has seen a boom in the development of warehouses and other logistics centers since the pandemic gave a boost to online shopping and the fulfillment operations the trend requires.
It calls for several hundred feet of buffer space between new warehouse developments and residential areas. Future development would be largely restricted to major thoroughfares, and would have to meet various landscaping requirements. In some cases, the law would require the deployment of zero-emission technology and ban trucks from idling their engines.
The sponsors of the Assembly version of the bill were Eloise Gómez Reyes, a Democrat from the Inland Empire town of Colton, and Juan Carrillo, a Democrat from Palmdale, in the Antelope Valley. Both areas are centers of logistics, with links to freeways and rail lines. Both of the legislators have touted the bill as a necessary safeguard for constituents in residential neighborhoods in their districts.
Business groups have opposed the legislation as unfriendly to business and likely to cost jobs.