Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Land Use topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Jurupa Valley council debates zoning overhaul to allow Discovery Center fire museum; asks staff for legal analysis
Summary
Councilmembers discussed initiating a general-plan and zoning amendment for the 68‑acre Jurupa Valley Discovery Center to allow a Cal Fire museum and other nonprofit uses, raised concerns about a state-mandated residential overlay, and agreed by consensus to have staff return with legal analysis and maps within roughly 30 days.
Planning staff presented an initiation to change the general‑plan land‑use designation and zoning for the roughly 68‑acre Jurupa Valley Discovery Center north of the 60 Freeway so the site’s zoning and general plan would be consistent and to allow new uses, including a Cal Fire museum and related educational offices.
"This is an initiation item," planning staff member Joe said, explaining staff’s recommendation to change the small‑farm portion of the site to public facilities/institutional on the general plan and to rezone the property to commercial office, with a separate overlay to preserve residential capacity as required by state law when residential zoning is removed.
Wes Andre, representing the Mountains Discovery Center, urged the council to move quickly so prospective partners — Cal Fire’s museum program, Sunshine Haven Wildlife Rehabilitation and scouting groups — could meet their timelines. "As a discovery center, we've been actually very limited," Andre said, listing planned programs and telling the council the partners wanted to proceed as soon as possible.
Several councilmembers voiced concern that the rezoning and a broad commercial designation could trigger state law consequences that inadvertently allow residential development or other uses the council does not intend. Councilmember Brian Bergson and others pressed staff to clarify how densities would be controlled; Bergson noted the site’s underlying RA (residential agricultural) zoning historically implied lot sizes around 20,000 square feet and said he did not want apartment‑style or high‑density housing to be an outcome.
Joe said there were currently no plans to build housing on the site and that the overlay was proposed specifically to comply with state law while avoiding rezoning other properties. After extended questions about legal risk, mapping and potential triggers from recent housing laws, the council reached consensus (no formal vote) to have staff return with additional legal analysis, clearer maps showing where any residential capacity would be placed, and a narrowed scope that prioritizes the museum and Discovery Center uses. The council asked staff to bring the item back as soon as possible, with 30 days discussed as a working target.
No final zoning action was taken at the meeting; the item will return to the Planning Commission and to the council for public hearings if the council elects to formally initiate the change.
