Rialto planning commission forwards Myra Way/Ayala specific‑plan amendment and EIR to council amid park, truck and air‑quality concerns

The Rialto Planning Commission voted unanimously on Nov. 5 to forward to the City Council a package that includes a subsequent environmental impact report (EIR), a specific‑plan amendment to the Renaissance Specific Plan, and the first amendment to the development agreement between the City of Rialto and Lewis Hillwood Rialto Company concerning the Myra Way/Ayala Drive area.

Staff and the applicant said the package would change Planning Area 123 from a school designation to general commercial with a residential overlay and redesignate Planning Areas 126 and 133 as Business Center, enabling future industrial or commercial development and a reconfiguration that extends Myra Way to connect to Ayala Drive. The staff presentation noted the amendments would allow, as land‑use capacity examples, roughly 112,000 square feet of commercial uses (or about 164 dwelling units) in one planning area and up to about 378,972 and 74,052 square feet of industrial uses in the others.

Daniel Casey, principal planner, told commissioners the subsequent EIR analyzed potential future development scenarios and concluded there would be a significant and unavoidable greenhouse‑gas impact. The resolution before the commission included a statement of overriding considerations describing the benefits the city intends to rely on to proceed despite that impact.

Public commenters and community groups pressed the commission on park preservation, cumulative truck impacts, air quality and transparency. Anna Gonzales of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice said community records show a large local warehouse inventory and cited what she called 42,000 truck trips a day to Rialto; other speakers raised concerns that reassigning park and school land to industrial uses would undermine neighborhood green space. Lindsay Munoz, a resident and urban‑planning student, cited the EIR’s modeled greenhouse‑gas estimate of roughly 7,000 metric tons CO2e per year and compared it to a cited South Coast Air Quality Management District screening threshold of 3,000 metric tons.

Glenn Crosby, representing Lewis Hillwood Rialto, said the project has been vetted over years, noted right‑of‑way dedications and traffic work already prepared for the Myra Way extension, and told commissioners that $10.8 million plus additional amounts referenced in the agreement have been paid into the city under the purchase‑and‑sale agreement. Staff also told the commission that park‑funding fees that would have been dedicated to on‑site construction would still be collected and could be used for parks elsewhere or for upgrades to existing parks, at the City Council’s discretion.

Casey and Crosby emphasized that no specific development entitlement is being approved tonight: the commission’s action was a recommendation to the council to certify the EIR, approve the specific‑plan amendment and the DA amendment so future proposals would be consistent with the amended plan and development agreement. Staff said the EIR and related traffic analyses were prepared specifically for the project and that Ayala Drive is not a designated truck route; any future development would require project‑level traffic studies and conditions of approval to mitigate truck routing.

The commission’s motion to forward the resolutions and the EIR recommendation carried 5–0. The City Council will take the final action on certification of the EIR, the specific‑plan amendment and the development‑agreement amendment.