RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Opponents of a Tesco grocery distribution center on former March Air Force Base in Riverside, Calif., have filed two lawsuits this month alleging that it was approved without proper consideration of the environmental impact, reported The Press-Enterprise.
British grocery giant Tesco PLC has announced plans to open an 820,400-sq.-ft. distribution center on the 88.4-acre property now controlled by the March Joint Powers Authority. The facility would support its planned convenience stores in Southern California.
As reported in CSP Daily News, the company plans to open a total of about 150 stores in Southern California and the Las Vegas and Phoenix areas. It has set up its U.S. headquarters in El Segundo, Calif., and has said that it would invest about $470 million to enter the West Coast with a new formatdesigned for the American market.
Each lawsuit alleges that the March authority failed to study the traffic and air-quality effects of the planned Tesco center or to hold public hearings on the project, said the Press-Enterprise report. The authority is also named in the lawsuits.
"I would speculate that there are obviously a lot of competitors worried about a major, multinational grocery chain and fresh-fruit supplier doing business in the area," said Riverside County Supervisor Bob Buster, vice chairman of the March Joint Powers Commission. The commission oversees the March authority.
John Brown, an attorney for the authority, said he considers the Tesco project to be consistent with a specific plan for the Meridian business park just west of Interstate 215. Brown said the business-park project underwent public hearings and a comprehensive environmental review in 1999.
"We always take these lawsuits seriously, especially when they have the potential of delaying redevelopment of the base, which is what they are intended to do," Brown said, according to the report.
Simon Uwins, chief marketing officer for Tesco, said court challenges using state environmental laws are common in California. "We have got every reason to believe that the end JPA decision will be upheld," Uwins told the newspaper.
A lawsuit filed on behalf of Moreno Valley resident Frank Baca is seeking to ensure that all the impacts of the project are fully disclosed, lawyer Karen Skaret of Briggs Law Corp. told the paper. Skaret described her firm's client as a concerned citizen whose interests are "strictly environmental as far as I know."
The sweeping environmental review from 1999 does not consider the individual effects of each project within the Meridian business park, Skaret said. "We want them to look at the impacts [of Tesco's plans] in terms of traffic, air quality and trains in the area, as diesel fuel is a big aspect of this," she told the paper.
Also, the law firm of Johnson & Sedlack filed a suit on behalf of Health First, which is described in the court documents as a "California unincorporated association." The association could not be reached by the paper for comment; however, in a 2004 interview, Raymond Johnson said his law firm has handled more than 15 court challenges to block Wal-Mart projects.
The March authority already has settled one court challenge from a countywide environmental group, the report said. In 2003, homeowners in Riverside's Orangecrest and Mission Grove neighborhoods filed a lawsuit saying the business park would create air pollution and traffic congestion.
The suit was settled later that year with the park's developer agreeing to reduce the number of warehouses and to keep trucks off nearby boulevards.
Riverside County and the cities of Moreno Valley, Perris and Riverside make up the March Joint Powers Authority, which oversees civilian use of former military property that was discarded when the March air base was downsized in 1996.
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