Two East Side elected officials are asking the city of Los Angeles to block approval of a planned Lincoln Heights warehouse, saying it would be a dangerous source of truck traffic and diesel exhaust.
Standing in front of City Hall on Tuesday, City Councilman Unis Hernandez and Education Commissioner Rocio Rivas said the 62,000-square-foot facility is located across Pasadena Street from nearby Hillside Elementary School. It warned that it could pose a serious health threat.
Hernandez said Lincoln Heights, a working-class neighborhood northeast of downtown, is already affected by “serious environmental injustices” such as freight train pollution, industrial site pollution and the Interstate 5 freeway. said.
“This is a slap in the face to that community,” said Hernandez, who represents the area. “you, [truck] All the trailers going in and out of there, all the pollution they’re going to bring in, all the additional trash. ”
Industrial developer Xebec Realty is listed in city planning documents as the company looking to build the warehouse, which would be located on vacant land just north of a 468-unit residential complex currently under construction. This location is also near the Heritage Square metro station on the A line.
Scott DiCesare, a development manager at Xebec Realty whose name appears on the form, did not respond to multiple calls and emails from the Times asking about the project. A woman who answered the phone at Mr. Seebeck’s office said Mr. DiCesare had no comment.
The developer is looking to build a 62,000-square-foot warehouse on a vacant lot near the subway light rail line and a 468-unit residential development.
(Myung Jay Chun/Los Angeles Times)
For the past year and a half, city inspectors have been reviewing permit applications for electrical work, grading and other construction activities planned as part of the warehouse project.
The developer applied to build the structure in June 2023, according to city records. At the time, the project was “of course” permitted under city planning laws, Hernandez said. In other words, it did not require approval from the City Planning Commission, which is made up of appointees from the mayor, or the City Council.
Since then, Hernandez has placed new hurdles in the project.
In October, she won City Council approval for an interim management ordinance that temporarily prohibits the development of warehouses larger than 15,000 square feet in the area. The moratorium won’t be lifted until the city completes a rewrite of the Cornfield Arroyo Specific Plan, which specifies what can be developed in Chinatown and parts of Lincoln Heights.
The Lincoln Heights project was not initially subject to the warehouse moratorium because the permit application was submitted more than a year before the measure took effect. Hernandez said the situation changed on Monday, when the application deadline expired due to missing documentation.
Gail Gaddy, a spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Building Safety, confirmed that the permit application for the project has expired 18 months after it was filed.
Gadi said city officials granted the developer’s request for an extension. However, the project will now be subject to the city’s current zoning requirements, including restrictions specified in the Interim Management Ordinance, she said.
The revised cornfield arroyo plan is expected to be voted on by the City Council this summer. If the plan is approved, the developer of the Lincoln Heights site would have to obtain a conditional use permit for warehouses larger than 15,000 square feet, a process that would allow the city to address the project’s impact on the neighborhood. Measures will be able to be explored, planning officials said. Department spokeswoman Nora Frost said.
Hernandez and her team say the process gives local residents an opportunity to be heard and gives the City Council the power to veto the project outright.
“The community doesn’t want this project,” Hernandez said. “And we’re going to do everything we can to prevent that from happening.”
Los Angeles City Council member Eunice Hernandez attended a rally last month opposing the proposed warehouse.
(Jason Almond/Los Angeles Times)
The warehouse will be built on the site of a former dry cleaner, whose operations caused widespread contamination, and the state Department of Toxic Substances Control is in charge of monitoring the site.
Rivas, the school board member, said approving a warehouse on the site would be “a recipe for disaster” and would bring an influx of contaminated trucks into the neighborhood.
“Many developers say they have the right to build, but what about our rights?” she said. “What about the rights of our children and their families? They have a right to clean air and a right to live in a healthy environment.”
Michael Henry Hayden, who lives a block away from the warehouse site, said the project’s impact extends beyond truck exhaust. He said the warehouse’s main driveway is planned next to the Hillside Elementary School crosswalk.
“These trucks continue to drive for over a mile through residential areas between here and the highway,” Hayden said.
Hayden alleges that the state’s Toxic Substances Control Agency has not overseen the proper cleaning of the warehouse site and surrounding area. Until that happens, no development on the land should be approved, he said.
Hernandez still hopes to find a replacement location for the warehouse. During her first year in office, she said, staff talked with property owners about converting the site into a city park. This strategy would cost millions of dollars and require extensive cleaning of the site.
“The idea of a park wasn’t viable at the time,” she says. “But that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.”
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