Warehouses not allowed in zoning change approved by council

By Doug Spoon, Editor

The Menifee City Council on Wednesday approved a zoning change that effectively prohibits the presence of warehouses in most parts of the city.

By removing the reference to warehouses in the municipal code, those structures will not be allowed in the Southern Gateway Economic Development Corridor – the vacant fields along both sides of the 215 Freeway between Garbani Road and Scott Road. Warehouses are now also prohibited in the McCall Boulevard EDC east of the freeway.

The council’s action means that warehouses will now be allowed only in the Northern Gateway EDC along Ethanac Road.

According to a presentation to the council by staff during Wednesday’s meeting, this became more of an issue when the City began receiving several applications for the construction of large warehouses in all EDC subareas. The City Council began studying the issue last summer and it has become a hot topic among residents who say they fear that warehousing will adversely affect their quality of life.

This view was shared by almost all of the 20 people who addressed the council during Wednesday’s public hearing. In addition to the large crowd in council chambers, the council received 35 emailed comments on the subject.

Among the few opposed to the zoning changes were representatives of commercial builders – two of whom requested a continuance of the matter for further study. But following discussion behind the dais, council members voted 4-1 (Matt Liesemeyer dissenting) to approve the zoning change.

“I appreciate that so many folks paid attention to this,” Mayor Bill Zimmerman told those in attendance. “We are listening. The residents’ quality of life takes precedence.”

“We have a responsibility to maintaining the best generating area for residents in perpetuity,” said council member Lesa Sobek. “This only applies to certain areas of high visibility. We’ve kept the balance; we allow warehouses on Ethanac, where it is the right fit.”

Sobek disputed council member Bob Karwin’s statements that the issue is primarily about trucks and the effect they would have on the condition of roads, air pollution, and traffic. Before deciding to vote with the majority, Karwin argued that it is difficult to legislate such action when the amount of truck use greatly varies from one warehouse business to another.

“I’m not a fan of warehouses, but I’m not a fan of striking something entirely for one thing of mistaste,” Karwin said. “Every single resident is against warehouses, but they’re also against more residential. It all creates traffic.”

Liesemeyer said he was concerned about how the City could “quantify the impact of trucks,” saying he believed too much emphasis was being placed on the number of docks and loading doors when considering warehouses.

“How can we look at a project and see that the number and size of doors constitutes traffic impact?” he asked. “I’m concerned that this change is throwing the baby out with the bath water. There’s a lack of creativity with this. I don’t like a hard and fast ‘no’ on warehouses.”

The approved ordinance also included more specific definitions of terms describing various forms of business. The term “manufacturing” was redefined to delete terms such as “To assemble, fabricate, compound, process, treat or remanufacture,” replacing them with terms referring to hand manufacturing and “light-intensity assembling, processing, storage or packaging of products.” Such descriptions left the door open for smaller businesses that manufacture without creating the need for large scale operations and multiple truck trips.

Definitions of “research and development” were added to the municipal code, supporting the vision Zimmerman and Sobek have long stated as goals for the McCall and Southern Gateway.

“I don’t believe this is about trucks,” Sobek said. “It’s about the right fit for each area. We need to protect this area for our residents.”

Mayor Pro Tem Dean Deines said that, “We’ve heard from the people, and what’s important is what they identify. What do we want for our city?”