Jurupa Valley council introduces Rio Vista development-agreement ordinance after heated public hearing over ancient oak

Jurupa Valley — After more than four hours of public testimony and technical questioning, the City Council introduced an ordinance to approve the development agreement for the Rio Vista Specific Plan and adopted related resolutions with staff‑ and applicant‑proposed tweaks, while several council members said they still had unanswered questions about the plan’s potential environmental impacts.

The project, proposed by Richland Communities, would replace a 1992 specific plan and permit a mix of uses that staff described as up to 1,697 residential units, roughly 1.27 million square feet of light‑industrial land, a business‑park component, 510.8 acres of natural open space and one public school site. Staff and the applicant framed the revised plan as a funding mechanism to secure long‑term protection and stewardship of cultural and biological resources at the site, including the Palmer (Jurupa) Oak, an ancient shrub‑oak the city and tribal experts estimate could be 13,000–18,000 years old.

"This project can fund the long‑term preservation of important resources in the area," Jeremy Crow of EPD Solutions said, noting widened buffers and a partnership with the Keish (Gabrielino) Nation to monitor and steward the conservation area. Developer Brian Hardy said the plan resulted from years of outreach and changes, and that the revised plan increases open…