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Hemet council rehears Simpson Road warehouse amid intense turnout; procedural votes leave council with no formal resolution but staff describe practical denial
Summary
After hours of testimony from dozens of residents and labor representatives, a re‑noticed de novo public hearing on an amended Simpson Road warehouse drew sharply divided public comment. The council performed procedural votes but did not adopt a three‑vote resolution either approving or denying the project; city staff reported that, under council rules, the practical outcome equated to denial but a formal resolution was not adopted.
Hemet’s City Council held a re‑noticed de novo public hearing on March 10 on the revised Simpson Road warehouse proposal — a single industrial building of 884,760 square feet — after the city reached a settlement that required a procedural reset and the voluntary recusal of two council members.
City attorney (reading a close‑session report) said the settlement was intended to avoid costly litigation and “was not an approval of the project,” but rather provided a fresh public hearing to ensure procedural fairness. Monnique Alanise Flair, the community development director, introduced the item and Jeremy Kraut, the project environmental reviewer, summarized the draft EIR and the changes made since the prior hearings: the revised proposal reduced the project to a single building and analyzed an agnostic tenant type typical of logistics and distribution operations.
Kraut told council the EIR analyzed typical impacts for a project of this size and found several significant, unavoidable impacts (noise increases on nearby…
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