Faced With The $200,000 Cost Of Resident-Forced Referendum To Cancel Their Favor To Developers

After having repeatedly misread the attitude of their constituents with regard to the proliferation of warehousing in their community, the Yucaipa City Council will have a last opportunity next week to reverse course and avert a referendum which will cost the city at least $200,000 and almost assuredly undo its earlier action which has triggered a resident revolt. Doing so, however, will require four of the council members to eat a heaping dish of humble pie they would rather not have to choke down.
More than 17 years ago, in November 2008, the Yucaipa City Council adopted its currently applicable development standards and blueprint for land use and its intensity in the 1,242 acres along the freeway and surrounding areas in Yucaipa under what is known as the Freeway Corridor Specific Plan. The planning document allowed for the construction of up to 2,447 residential units on 424.7 acres and up to 4,585,779 square feet of nonresidential uses on 242.7 acres within the designated area.
In recent years, a handful of projects that were proposed and approved, taken together with development proposals within the 1,241-acre expanse prompted calls for the specific plan’s adjustment. Thirteen months ago, the Palmer, Robinson, and Issa families sought permission to construct warehouses along Live Oak Canyon.
While then-Councilman Bobby Duncan and then-Councilman Jon Thorp were willing to let the projects proceed, then-Mayor Justin Beaver, Councilman Chris Venable and then-Councilman Matt Garner balked at the proposal.
There were at that time two mindsets with regard to the warehouse issue.
Those in favor of aggressive development wanted a more generous allotment of land to be eligible for light and medium industrial use, which extends to warehouses. That group wanted property within the mouth of Live Oak Canyon that falls inside Yucaipa’s borders to be eligible for conversion to warehouses.
There were others who believed that warehouses represent far too intensive of a land use in rustic Live Oak Canyon. Both camps agreed in one respect: They wanted the then-16-year-old Freeway Corridor Specific Plan scrapped. Those intent to see the natural aspect of Live Oak Canyon preserved wanted the specific plan altered to prohibit light and medium industrial uses in the canyon and for the city to encourage that kind of land use to take place elsewhere within acreage along the periphery of the 10 Freeway. In September 2024 and the months thereafter, the council receded from dealing with the calls from both sides to revamp the Freeway Corridor Specific Plan.
With the November 2024 election, Matt Garner, who had been elected to the city council in November 2022, was recalled from office, after which he was replaced through action of the council by Bob Miller. Bobby Duncan, who had been on the city council since 2012, did not seek reelection, and he was replaced by Judy Woolsey.
After having repeatedly misread the attitude of their constituents with regard to the proliferation of warehousing in their community, the Yucaipa City Council will have a last opportunity next week to reverse course and avert a referendum which will cost the city at least $200,000 and almost assuredly undo its earlier action which has triggered a resident revolt. Doing so, however, will require four of the council members to eat a heaping dish of humble pie they would rather not have to choke down.
More than 17 years ago, in November 2008, the Yucaipa City Council adopted its currently applicable development standards and blueprint for land use and its intensity in the 1,242 acres along the freeway and surrounding areas in Yucaipa under what is known as the Freeway Corridor Specific Plan. The planning document allowed for the construction of up to 2,447 residential units on 424.7 acres and up to 4,585,779 square feet of nonresidential uses on 242.7 acres within the designated area.
In recent years, a handful of projects that were proposed and approved, taken together with development proposals within the 1,241-acre expanse prompted calls for the specific plan’s adjustment. Thirteen months ago, the Palmer, Robinson, and Issa families sought permission to construct warehouses along Live Oak Canyon.
While then-Councilman Bobby Duncan and then-Councilman Jon Thorp were willing to let the projects proceed, then-Mayor Justin Beaver, Councilman Chris Venable and then-Councilman Matt Garner balked at the proposal.
There were at that time two mindsets with regard to the warehouse issue.
Those in favor of aggressive development wanted a more generous allotment of land to be eligible for light and medium industrial use, which extends to warehouses. That group wanted property within the mouth of Live Oak Canyon that falls inside Yucaipa’s borders to be eligible for conversion to warehouses.
There were others who believed that warehouses represent far too intensive of a land use in rustic Live Oak Canyon. Both camps agreed in one respect: They wanted the then-16-year-old Freeway Corridor Specific Plan scrapped. Those intent to see the natural aspect of Live Oak Canyon preserved wanted the specific plan altered to prohibit light and medium industrial uses in the canyon and for the city to encourage that kind of land use to take place elsewhere within acreage along the periphery of the 10 Freeway. In September 2024 and the months thereafter, the council receded from dealing with the calls from both sides to revamp the Freeway Corridor Specific Plan.
With the November 2024 election, Matt Garner, who had been elected to the city council in November 2022, was recalled from office, after which he was replaced through action of the council by Bob Miller. Bobby Duncan, who had been on the city council since 2012, did not seek reelection, and he was replaced by Judy Woolsey.
With the Palmer, Robinson, and Issa families pressing ahead with their designs on constructing warehouses along Live Oak Canyon and the City of Yucaipa’s planning division consistently seeking to accommodate their overtures, on August 25, 2025 the Yucaipa City Council’s was presented with an update of the city’s Freeway Corridor Specific Plan that was indulgent of the Palmer, Robinson, and Issa families’ intentions, a development ordinance and a parallel proposal to construct two large warehouses within that designated area. The council by a 4-to1 vote, with Councilman Chris Venable dissenting and now-Mayor Thorp, Councilmen Beaver and Miller and Councilwoman Woolsey prevailing, approved the specific plan update and the development proposals. Two weeks later, on September 8, the city council gave a so-called second reading, i.e., confirming passage of the action it had taken on August 25, rezoning the 1,242 acres along the 10 Freeway from Live Oak Canyon Road to County Line Road for “planned development,” essentially opening the property up for “light industrial” or warehouse development.
David Matuszak, the president of Friends of Live Oak Canyon, a core group of Yucaipans mounted an effort to counter what the council had done. Friends of Live Oak Canyon called upon all of those members of both the Yucaipa, Redlands, San Bernardino County and Riverside County communities who value the atmosphere and tranquility Live Oak Canyon to come together in action and prevent the loss of “a lifestyle we commonly value.”
In a very short period of time, Friends of Live Oak Canyon and a companion group, Yucaipa Neighbors Opposing Warehouses, circulated two petitions, one declaring their opposition to warehouse development in Live Oak Canyon that was approved and the other calling for a referendum two undo the council’s August 25/September 8 vote to alter the Freeway Corridor Specific Plan, to which
5,232 registered voters in Yucaipa affixed their signatures. That safely exceeded the 3,618 valid signatures of city voters needed to force the city to put the referendum on the ballot.
The city council is scheduled next Monday to take action to request that the San Bernardino county Registrar of Voters place the referendum on upcoming June 2026 primary ballot. The cost to the city of holding that election will run to over $200,000. To the chagrin of Thorp, Beaver, Miller and Woolsey, who want to accommodate the development community, the consideration that 5,232 of the city’s 35,552 voters already shown to be in favor of undoing the Freeway Corridor Specific Plan update is a strong indication that the lessening of restrictions on warehouse development as well as the two warehouse projects approve in August and September will not be sustained.
Consequently, the members of the council are looking very hard at simply rescind the specific plan, the development ordinance that was approved with it and cancel out the approval of the two warehouses. By doing so, the council could satisfy the objections of those who signed the petitions and obviate the necessity of holding the referendum in June, thereby saving the city $200,000.
There remains the possibility, however, that Thorp, Beaver, Miller and Woolsey may elect to roll the dice and approve holding the referendum in June, hoping that the Palmer, Robinson, and Issa families and those elements of the building industry and development community involved in warehouse construction will bankroll a campaign to prevent the referendum from succeeding.
-Mark Gutglueck