Court Rejects Plan to Build Warehouses Next to Kangaroo Rat Preserve

A Riverside County Superior Court judge has ruled that a proposed industrial warehouse project adjacent to an important wildlife preserve cannot proceed in destroying habitat for imperiled wildlife. The proposed warehouses on Alessandro Boulevard — just south of the city of Riverside’s Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Park — threaten to sever the last remaining natural connection between the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Park and the March Stephens’ Kangaroo Rat Preserve. The court found that Riverside County improperly ignored the neighboring March Stephens’ Kangaroo Rat Preserve when it approved warehouses on endangered species habitat. This ruling follows a series of successful legal challenges to development proposals on western Riverside’s few remaining natural places, which were prompted by the failure to follow obligations in the Stephens’ Kangaroo Rat Habitat Conservation Plan — a plan originally proposed to strike a balance between wildlife protection and development...more