Sierra Club wins legal victory for clean air in Moreno Valley

The City's flawed environmental study must be redone, court rules

May 10, 2024

Moreno Valley, Calif.- A Riverside County Superior Court judge sided with Sierra Club and the California Attorney General's Office on Monday by ruling that the City of Moreno Valley violated environmental law when it approved its "MoVal 2040" General Plan. The plan called for significant growth in industrial, commercial and residential development through 2040, but lacked meaningful mitigation to reduce harmful impacts from that growth, including from placing industrial development adjacent to residents' homes.

The court found multiple deficiencies in the City's Environmental Impact Report regarding the project's effects on air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, energy use and public health impacts on vulnerable residents. The Court also rejected the City's Climate Action Plan, which can now not be used to streamline future projects' greenhouse gas impacts analysis.

"Moreno Valley's residents deserve transparency about the real environmental impacts of the City's growth plans," said George Hague, Conservation Chair with the Sierra Club's Moreno Valley Group. "This is a huge win. The City now must go back and conduct a legitimate review of this project's pollution and health hazards before moving forward."

The main deficiencies cited by the court include:

• Failure to properly measure air quality impacts against existing conditions
• Lack of analysis of the project's effects on vulnerable populations like children and seniors
• Insufficient evidence to dismiss the plan's significant increases in greenhouse gas emissions
• Inadequate mitigation measures to address environmental harm
• Failure to properly analyze and mitigate the project's wasteful energy use

The Sierra Club originally filed suit in July 2021, alleging the City rushed to approve the MoVal 2040 plan and its environmental review without adequately addressing public concerns over air pollution, harmful emissions from industrial projects and other environmental impacts to residential neighborhoods like the City's Edgemont community.

The court ordered the city to set aside all project approvals related to the MoVal 2040 plan until it corrects the deficiencies identified in the ruling.

"We welcome working with the city to get this right," Hague said. "The goal is a General Plan for Moreno Valley's future that grows the economy while protecting residents' health and natural resources."

The Sierra Club is represented in this lawsuit by Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger.

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America's largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.