March JPA votes no on rebranded development, residents and environmental groups rejoice

The March Joint Powers Commission rejected the March Innovation Hub in a unanimous decision Monday night, preserving more than 800 acres of rolling, chaparral hills near the Grove Community Church in Riverside. 

Inside a standing-room only civic center, hundreds crowded Riverside’s administrative chamber to engage the board in debate over the merits of the Lewis Group of Companies’ reimagined mixed-use development, as dozens more watched the meeting unfold on projectors set up near the building's entrance and dining area.

For the last three years, the Lewis Group and its subsidiary, Meridian Park LLC, have been embroiled in agitated land-use disputes with concerned residents and groups like Riverside Neighbors Opposing Warehousing (R-NOW). 

But last night's vote was a rare, painstaking victory for critics of the region’s warehouse sprawl, and R-NOW co-founder Jennifer Larratt-Smith was ecstatic.  

She said she was in “shock” and “proud,” that “our community . . . consistently voiced our opposition,” adding that they “showed up big again—as they did last year.”

Last June, R-NOW rallied hundreds of residents to speak against the West Campus Upper Plateau Project, a development that featured a 1.8 million square foot warehouse. Amid mounting public pressure, the Commission voted 6-1 to table the project.

After the developer raised concerns, the Commission voted to untable the project earlier this year in March and place it back on the agenda. 

The March Innovation Hub, a rebranded version of the West Campus proposal, promised to create 3,100 jobs by establishing a campus focused on education, training and research on emerging technologies. Lewis Group also proposed a 40 to 60-acre community park along Barton road in addition to 468 acres of open space and a new fire station. 

In a statement issued to The Frontline Observer last Friday, Randall Lewis, owner of the Lewis Group of Companies, said the project promised to “transform unused military land into the biggest technology campus” in the area. 

During yesterday’s meeting, he told the Commission that the Hub would address the region’s “brain drain.” 

“We hope to develop a campus for research, clean technology and advanced manufacturing,” Lewis said. “We think that if we can create this . . . it will serve as an attraction, almost a magnet for what they call clusters of industries.”

Labor unions and Riverside’s chamber of commerce also spoke about the project’s potential to spur economic growth and job creation. 

Larratt-Smith, however, issued a skeptical admonition.

“Okay, dear commissioners, the most important thing I need you to hear tonight is that you are not voting on what a developer is pinky promising to do,” she said. “It doesn't matter what they say verbally—you are voting to certify what is in writing—and the developer is seeking industrial zoning for the West Campus Upper Plateau.”

She added that “If you approve the zoning, the county approvals will only be ministerial, and you give them carte blanche.” 

Riverside’s First District Supervisor Jose Medina shared Larratt-Smith’s skepticism, spearheading the Commission’s vote against the Lewis Group’s revised design, citing concerns over health, labor and empty wishes.

“We cannot approve something that is not in writing, something that is only a promise,” Medina said. “Tonight, I [will] make the motion to reject this project.”

While Medina’s comments triggered raucous applause, Riverside Council Member Chuck Conder—who has challenged R-NOW since the project’s inception—criticized environmental justice advocates, drawing the crowd’s ire. 

“If we put a covenant that they can't build warehouses, will you accept that?” Condor asked, clearly frustrated. “If the answer is no, what do you want?”

Bryan Goodman, a Lewis Group representative, said the developer was prepared to prohibit warehouse use. Afterward, Supervisor Yxstian Gutierrez motioned to approve the project under those terms. That motion failed, and the board eventually voted against the Innovation Hub. 

Larratt-Smith says R-NOW is worried the project could be revived and says they’re on alert if it is. 

The March Joint Powers Authority will dissolve in July. Then the county will take over land use decisions. 

Lewis did not respond to The Frontline Observer’s request for comment.