Quick Approval of San Manuel Warehouse Project a Positive Move for San Bernardino Governance

The San Bernardino City Council voted to approve the construction of a 1.1 million square foot warehouse project backed by the San Manuel Tribe on Wednesday evening.  This is a good project and should have received swift approval as it did.  San Bernardino has developed a reputation of being a city that is difficult to do business with and this is a step to repairing that image among the development community.

One hopes that it was the merits of the project itself and not the fact that the powerful San Manuel Tribe was the backer that drove the decision making of the council members that voted to approve the project.  This would show a greater understanding of the situation the City of San Bernardino is in when it comes to economic development and jobs if that were the case.

The location makes great sense because the project, called, “The Landing by San Manuel,” would be inside of the existing boundaries of the San Bernardino International Airport Property and is in an area already home to the Amazon Air Regional Air Hub facility which is in excess of 600,000 square feet.  In other words, a warehouse project going in by other warehouse projects on an underutilized property in desperate need of development.

Sadly the vote in favor was not unanimous and some members of the community voiced irresponsible and frankly illegal comments calling for a “moratorium” on warehouse development.  Cities cannot arbitrarily decide they do not want a certain kind of business or project just because they don’t like them.  One thinks San Bernardino in particular given its historical fiasco of trying to shut down a local strip-club would understand this.

Councilman Ben Reynoso in particular needs an education.  In his own social media comments he makes clear that the reason people can get everything from groceries to luxury items delivered to their door – which especially in a pandemic has been vital to people – is because of nearby warehouses and he then goes on to rail against them and demand an end to warehouse development.

Fear of emissions (which get lower with every new generation of trucks and other vehicles) and other environmental scare tactics is what usually drives these types of movements which are typically being orchestrated behind the scenes by organized labor groups that truthfully are just fine with the projects and jobs that they bring – as long as they are unionized.

Money and political power is what they are after and if Councilman Reynoso doesn’t understand this – well you know what P.T. Barnum said…”there’s a sucker born every minute.”