Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
generally positive attitude towards logistics, and local governments compete with
each other to attract logistics activities at the expense of neighboring localities.
To explore this further for the Los Angeles area, and better identify the ways
local planners react to logistics facilities, I conducted interviews with planning
managers of several local governments in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
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In
this Section, I have chosen to present the details of two cases that are typical of the
changes in attitudes and practices brought by ''warehousizing'' as I have described
it in
Sect. 3
. One is the municipality of Vernon, close to downtown Los Angeles,
one of the historical manufacturing areas of Los Angeles, and the other is Moreno
Valley, a ''new city'' in the Inland Empire, which has experienced (and promoted)
rapid logistics growth in recent years.
5.1 The City of Vernon
Vernon was founded in 1905 as an ''Industrial City,'' with very few inhabitants
(700 originally). Today, it counts 112 inhabitants, 1,800 businesses and 55,000
jobs. The city recently faced a threat of de-incorporation by the state, in the midst
of allegations of corruption and as the number of voters was considered too small.
The city is exceptional in several ways: it is one of the smallest incorporated
communities in the U.S., its residents to jobs ratio is exceptionally low, and it is
very centrally located, keeping a highly active industrial area right in the core of
Los Angeles. Vernon is located five miles south of downtown Los Angeles. The
city reached full development about forty years ago and there are no more new
parcels available for development. Nearly all of the current economic activity is
industrial, and land parcels or buildings are constantly being renovated, trans-
formed and sold to new businesses.
The city wishes to maintain its manufacturing character, and to promote
manufacturing jobs. ''We do realize there is a transition at work, and that manu-
facturing jobs are endangered as they are exported to China. Buildings are con-
verted into warehouses and other types of logistics facilities, as there is such an
important need to manipulate and transload all these imported goods arriving to
the ports. But as much as we can, we are going to favor true manufacturing jobs
over logistics ones'' (Kevin Wilson). There are two main reasons for the city's
preference for manufacturing over logistics jobs. The first is the low job density of
logistics activities (with usual ratios of about 30-100 jobs per hectare). Another
complaint from the city regarding logistics facilities is that they do not generate
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Interviews: city of Moreno Valley, John Terell, AICP, Planning Official, April 18, 2012; city
of Vernon, Kevin Wilson, Director of Community, Services and Water, May 7, 2012; WRCOG
(Western Riverside Council of Government), Ruthanne Taylor-Berger, Deputy Executive
Director, May 23, 2012; Gateway Cities, Jerry Wood, Director of Transportation and
Engineering, May 30, 2012; Los Angeles County, Connie Chung, Supervising Regional Planner,
June 18, 2012. Questionnaires filled: cities of Santa Clarita and Palmdale.
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