Attorney General Bonta Announces Agreement with City of Stockton to Address Environmental Impacts from Continued Warehouse Development

City will impose some of the most advanced mitigation measures in the state to address environmental impacts of proposed Mariposa Industrial Park Project 

OAKLAND – California Attorney General Rob Bonta today announced an agreement requiring the City of Stockton to prepare and consider an ordinance implementing robust mitigation measures for future warehouse development in the city and impose similarly robust mitigation measures to the proposed Mariposa Industrial Park Project. In October 2021 and April 2022, Attorney General Bonta sent letters to the City of Stockton outlining concerns that its environmental review of the proposed Mariposa Project failed to adopt all feasible mitigation measures as required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The Attorney General's Office subsequently worked with the City of Stockton to develop a suite of advanced mitigation measures to reduce the Mariposa Project's impacts to the community of South Stockton. The City of Stockton also agreed to enter into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Department of Justice to prepare and consider adopting an ordinance establishing development standards for future warehouse development in the City that aligns with the mitigation measures imposed on the revised Mariposa Project. 

“For too long, warehouses have proliferated throughout California with little consideration of the health and safety impacts to the surrounding communities,” said Attorney General Bonta. “As a result of these poor land use decisions, many low-income communities and communities of color continue to be among the most pollution burdened in the state. With today's settlement, the City of Stockton is committing to course correct by considering some of the most advanced mitigation measures in the state not just for the Mariposa Industrial Park Project, but for all future large warehouse projects in Stockton as well. These life-saving measures are technologically and economically feasible and will substantially reduce the environmental impacts of warehouse development on the surrounding communities. I hope this serves as a model for future warehouse projects across the state.”

Communities in Stockton disproportionately suffer from the environmental impacts of industrial development where they live, work, and go to school. According to CalEnviroScreen, south Stockton’s neighborhoods are exposed to pollution burdens in the top 10% of all communities in California, with some communities registering in the top 1%. The Mariposa Project is a proposed 3.6 million square foot warehouse complex located in southeast Stockton. Most of the Mariposa Project buildings will comprise hundreds of thousands of square feet and be used 24-hours a day, 7-days-a-week as fulfillment and logistics centers and warehouses. The Project is expected to attract over 12,000 vehicle trips per day, with a large fleet of trucks servicing the warehouses.

Following letters in October 2021 and April 2022, the Attorney General’s Office worked with the City of Stockton to develop some of the most advanced mitigation measures of any warehouse developed in California to address the project’s impacts on the surrounding community. Many of the mitigation measures reflect the Attorney General’s Warehouse Best Practices guidance, and include a 100% electric vehicle (EV) heavy-duty on-site truck fleets, a requirement that operational power be supplied by solar and other renewable sources, large setbacks and landscaped barriers between sensitive receptors and the Mariposa Project, and a community benefit fund to support clean air projects in the south Stockton community.

In addition to these project-specific mitigation measures, the MOU between the City and the Department of Justice requires that the City prepare and consider adoption of a comprehensive warehouse ordinance modeled after the mitigation measures included in the Mariposa Project. If passed, this would represent the strictest warehouse ordinance passed by any jurisdiction in California, building off the Attorney General’s innovative settlement requiring the City of Fontana to pass a warehouse ordinance requiring substantial mitigation measures for all future warehouse built within the city.

Attorney General Bonta is committed to fighting environmental injustices throughout the state of California and being a voice for frontline communities who are all too often under-resourced and overburdened. On April 28, 2021, Attorney General Bonta announced the expansion of the California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Environmental Justice. More information on the Bureau and its work is available here. 

A copy of the MOU, which was approved last night by the Stockton City Council, is available here.