Perris Planning Commission Recommends Certification of Harvest Landing EIR, Limits Warehouses and Narrows Parcel‑Hub Footprint

The Perris Planning Commission voted 3–1 on Dec. 17 to recommend that the City Council certify the Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and approve a comprehensive amendment to the Harvest Landing Specific Plan, selecting staff‑recommended Alternative 4 with a set of conditions and clarifications.

The landowner and applicant, HIP Southern California Properties LLC (Howard Industrial Partners), is proposing a two‑phase project that would reconfigure the existing Harvest Landing Specific Plan to include a roughly 46.49‑acre regional commercial shopping center, a parcel‑hub sorting facility of about 391,725 square feet (reduced by commission amendment to the project’s originally proposed footprint in this hearing), and Phase 2 reserved for multiple‑business use and up to 615 residential dwelling units. The project package before the commission included multiple entitlements: a General Plan amendment, a specific‑plan amendment, zone change, development agreement amendment, several tentative parcel maps, conditional use permits and development plan reviews.

Why the commission acted

Staff and the applicant told commissioners that the applicant now supports Alternative 4, which removes allowances for industrial warehouses and distribution centers while retaining the commercial center, a parcel hub (for last‑mile delivery), and the potential for up to 615 housing units north of Orange Avenue in Phase 2. Staff’s environmental analysis found that the project would have significant and unavoidable impacts in four areas—regional air quality, greenhouse gases, noise for one roadway segment, and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) from commercial uses—and therefore the city would, if it certifies the EIR, need to adopt a statement of overriding considerations along with a mitigation monitoring and reporting program.

Supporters and opponents

The hearing drew hundreds of residents and organized groups. Supporters — including representatives from local labor unions, the Paris Valley Chamber of Commerce and retail partners — spoke in favor of the commercial center, sports park and the job opportunities the applicant projected. Tim Howard, representing the applicant, told the commission: “We have petitions both online and paper, and we’ve turned those in…. Harvest Landing delivers on both of those…