Council approves Freeway Corridor update and Pacific Oaks Commerce Center; developers must complete infrastructure before occupancy

The Yucaipa City Council voted 4-1 on Aug. 25 to adopt an updated Freeway Corridor Specific Plan and to approve entitlements for the Pacific Oaks Commerce Center, a planned two-building industrial complex that city staff and the applicant say will fund major utility and roadwork in the corridor.

The council adopted Resolution No. 2025-54 to approve the specific plan update and the revised final supplemental environmental impact report. The motion to accept staff recommendations was moved by Council Member Miller and seconded by Council Member Beaver and carried on a roll-call vote: Bieber — yes; Miller — yes; Woolsey — yes; Venable — no; Thorpe — yes.

The update changes land-use designations across the Interstate-10 corridor east of Yucaipa, adds housing-density options and reconfigures open-space mapping to reflect natural drainage courses. Staff and the applicant said the revised plan reduces projected peak vehicle trips at full build-out by roughly 52 percent compared with the 2008 plan and makes mitigation and permitting work available to future property owners through the plan’s environmental review.

Pacific Oaks Commerce Center: scope and conditions The Pacific Oaks Commerce Center proposal covers about 312 acres and includes two warehouse buildings, access from Live Oak Canyon Road and a network of onsite roads and infrastructure the developer says will be constructed at its cost. The applicant, Pacific Industrial, told the council it expects to preserve about 95 acres as permanent open space and to provide an on-site multiuse trail across the site.

City staff described required public improvements conditioned on the project: road widening on Live Oak Canyon Road, a new bridge and roadway connections, onsite drainage, sewer, electric and telecommunications infrastructure, and a water main sized in coordination with Yucaipa Valley Water District. Staff reported estimated first-year fiscal benefits of about $789,000 in annual property-tax and related revenue and roughly $14.4 million in one-time development impact fees under the city’s new fee schedule.

The developer told the council it would not seek occupancy until the public-facing infrastructure improvements are complete. "We designed a project that is, really green leaning," said Dan Floriani, co-founder of Pacific Industrial, during his presentation, adding the project includes solar-ready roofs, EV charging and circulation features intended to keep trucks off neighborhood streets.

Traffic, air quality and mitigation measures The environmental review modeled traffic under conservative, peak-season conditions that included the pumpkin-patch period to account for the highest seasonal demand, staff and a peer reviewer said. Megan Truman of EPD Solutions, retained to peer-review the EIR, told the council the traffic analysis used peak counts and that the air‑quality and health‑risk assessments applied conservative assumptions to ensure a "worst‑case" analysis.

PlaceWorks, the city’s EIR consultant, reported that the project would generate an estimated 2,165 truck trips per day (about 1,083 truck round trips) and that the health‑risk assessment used an elevated cumulative threshold recommended by the South Coast Air Quality Management District working group. Nicole Vermillion of PlaceWorks said the health‑risk findings remained below AQMD thresholds with the mitigation measures proposed.

The mitigation and monitoring program includes requirements the council heard are more stringent than typical measures: all‑electric building design, tier‑4 construction equipment during grading and construction, restrictions on nonessential diesel truck idling to two minutes (where state and local rules allow longer), provision of onsite electric truck charging for domiciled electric trucks, and EV parking that exceeds CalGreen minimums.

Public comment and council debate Speakers at the public hearing expressed strongly divergent views. Supporters included the Palmer family (property owners on the corridor), trade unions and regional business advocates, who highlighted jobs, infrastructure funding and the applicant’s commitments to hiring and local apprenticeships. "This project opens that up for the new owners ... with water, sewer, and many infrastructure things," David Palmer said on behalf of the Palmer family.

Opponents raised concerns about air quality, wildfire evacuation, road capacity and the proximity of industrial uses to future residential areas. Several residents cited CalEnviroScreen indicators and warned that the corridor is already burdened by pollution. One pediatrician said additional truck traffic on constrained two‑lane roadways could create public‑safety and evacuation hazards in an emergency.

The council and staff addressed several of the concerns during discussion: staff said the project’s traffic mitigation will include widening Live Oak Canyon Road and constructing a new bridge; the developer confirmed infrastructure work will be completed before building occupancy; peer reviewers and the EIR team described the conservative assumptions used for traffic and air quality analyses; and the EIR includes continuing mitigation and monitoring commitments.

What the approval does and next steps Council approval authorizes the specific plan update and the project’s discretionary entitlements subject to the conditions and mitigation measures in the revised final supplemental EIR and the project’s conditions of approval. Individual building permits, grading permits, utility permits and any required county or state approvals must still be obtained before construction. Staff said future projects in the plan area may rely on the environmental work completed for the update but also may need project‑level reviews.

The applicant, Pacific Industrial, and property owners will be required to execute infrastructure agreements and to complete the public improvements and required mitigation before occupancy of the buildings, per conditions included in the project approvals. The council’s action preserves the city’s ability to pursue the corridor’s housing and economic‑development objectives that have been under study since the early 2000s.

Ending The updated Freeway Corridor Specific Plan and Pacific Oaks entitlements mark the next step in a plan-area process spanning more than a decade. The council’s approvals allow the applicant and property owners to proceed with detailed engineering, permitting and the infrastructure agreements required to move the project into construction, subject to the monitoring and mitigation the council adopted with the plan.