The sobriquet that many in the Fontana community and beyond have come to apply to Mayor Acquanetta will remain intact, following recent action by the Fontana Planning Commission.
A plan to erect what are in essence two warehouses that has lain dormant for more than six-and-a-half was given actuation by the planning commission on March 17.
On that date last month, the planning commission unanimously approved a proposal by Orange-based C. VanDerHoek Architects, Inc. to construct two new industrial/commerce center buildings,one totaling 41,218 square feet and the other consisting of 30,767 square feet under roof.
C. VanDerHoek Architects, Inc. originally brought the project forward in 2019. both buildings were on a trajectory toward approval when the Supporters Alliance for Environmental Responsibility (SAFER) challenged the undertakings on environmental and procedural grounds. City staff formulated an answer to the issues the Supporters Alliance for Environmental Responsibility raised, whereupon it came up for a hearing before the planning commission on June 4, 2019.
“At that time, staff presented a memo to the planning commission requesting that the project be continued off calendar so that staff could adequately respond to a general comment letter submitted by SAFER,” the staff report relating to the action taken on March 17, 2026 stated. “The applicant has submitted a justification memo with technical studies to support the categorical exemptions under California Environmental Quality Act Guidelines Section 15332. Staff has reviewed and concurred with the analysis in the justification memo.”
The California Environmental Quality Act, known by its acronym CEQA, is a state law that requires public agencies to evaluate and disclose the environmental impacts of proposed projects before approval, ensuring informed decision-making and public participation. The act requires that the impacts of proposed development projects be identified and that mitigating measures be incorporated into the permits issued for the project[s] to proceed when the entity with land use authority in that particular jurisdiction, as in Fontana either the city council or planning commission, votes to approve the project.
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15332 (14 California Code of Regulations § 15332) provides a “Class 32” categorical exemption for infill development projects. To qualify, projects must be within city limits, under five acres, surrounded by urban uses, compliant with general plans/zoning, have no endangered species habitat, and not create significant traffic, noise, air quality, or water quality
The individual project sites were originally part of the same parcel. The planning commission approved the original parcel being divided into two parcels. Building No. 1 and Building No. 2 will each be located on a project site north of Hilton Drive and west of Hemlock Avenue — occupying 2.29 acres and 1.69 acres, respectively, for a total area of 3.98 acres.
In approving the project, the planning commission signed off on the project being categorically exempt pursuant to Section No. 15332, based upon it being a so called “infill development.”
Two assertions in the resolution approved by the planning commission are in dispute by at least some community members. One of those is an assertion it “the city wishes to protect and preserve the quality of life throughout the city, through effective land use and planning.” The other falls within the “findings of fact” portion of the resolution, which states, “The project will be constructed pursuant to all applicable building, zoning and fire codes.”
The project has been on hold for more than a half of a decade because of serious contention among some residents that the intermixing of industrial uses in proximity to homes and schools is not in keeping with state zoning guidelines and zoning law, which trump local regulations.
In 2022, state action including a filing by California Attorney General Rob Bonta which alleged that Fontana and its city council violated the California Environmental Quality Act resulted in a 205,000-square foot warehouse project located near the intersection of Slover and Oleander approved by the city council in 2021 being put on hold. According to Bonta, the city violated several provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act and defied both decency and common sense by placing the warehouse immediately adjacent to a school campus.  As a consequence of the lawsuit and to obtain state clearance for the project to proceed, the city gave Bonta an assurance it would  adopt stringent environmental standards for future warehouse developments and agreed to impose  significant mitigation measures to minimize environmental impacts of the Slover and Oleander project, including reducing emissions and providing air filters to affected communities.
A number of environmentalists and community interest groups, including SAFER, the Sierra club, the South Fontana Concerned Citizens Coalition and the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice contend that now that Bonta’s attention is elsewhere, the City of Fontana is thumbing its nose at those concerned about the deterioration of the environment in Fontana, state regulatory officials and its own citizens.
An intrinsic element to the warehouse boom in Fontana has been the city’s mayor, Acquanetta Warren. Warren has insisted that warehouse construction represents an economic and social boon to Fontana, in that the building of warehouses constitutes easy “economic advancement” for the community, which allows those with capital to acquire or tie up property and quickly convert the land into logistics facilities consisting of tilt-up buildings, thereby generating fast money and investment in the local economy. She has been so aggressive in accommodating warehouses that she has become known by those who both oppose and favor warehouse development as “Warehouse Warren.” In recent years, a growing number of urban planners, futurists and local residents, including a wide cross section of Warren’s own constituents, citing the relatively poor pay and benefits provided to those who work in distribution facilities, the large diesel-powered semi-trucks that are part of those operations with their unhealthy exhaust emissions, together with the bane of traffic gridlock they create, have questioned whether warehouses constitute the highest and best use of local property available for development. Warren has consistently ignored or pointedly dismissed the assertions that through approving the scores of logistics facilities that have come into the city under her watch, her coalition on the council has allowed warehouse developers, owners and operators to not only exploit those who work in the facilities but victimize nearby residents through the environmental impact of such land use. The South Coast Air Quality Management District’s enforcement action, launched in 2023, in which it has cataloged that more than 49 percent of the warehouses in Fontana have run afoul of at least one and in several cases more air pollution control regulations validates the objections those who have called Warren’s stewardship of the city into question.
Nevertheless Warren, as demonstrated by the planning commission’s action on March 17, which occurred at her encouragement, is not desisting from her advocacy of intensive warehouse development in Fontana.
-Mark Gutglueck