LOS ANGELES—“The facts are on our side,” Chris Shimoda, VP of Government Affairs at the California Trucking Association, said on the Cracking the Code on California Mandates panel at NAIOP's I.CON last week. The panelists said that environmental regulations in California have gone too far. While it is nothing new to hear complaints about California's environmental regulations, which are among the strictest in the country, the panelists said that the regulations are getting more extreme and are now targeting warehouses and tools, not just trucks.

“Trucks are used as the excuse of why people don't want industrial development. The facts are on our side. The EPA has ratcheted down requirements,” said Shimoda. “We are facing now a strange situation, where we are facing more stringent calls. The cleaner that we get, the more aggressive the calls become. The EPA has done everything they can do.” Shimoda added that some of the new regulations under consideration are zero emission trucks. “This is very aggressive. It sounds crazy, but we need to take it seriously,” he explained.

The California Trucking Association is fighting the current proposals, but they may be fighting a losing battle. “The decision is going to be made this year, and there is a chance that we lose,” he said. “If that is the case, we are looking at years of litigation fighting this.”

Rex Hime, President and CEO of the California Business Properties Association, added that the environmental regulations for warehouse development often only affects new developments, but older development—which he says is often outdated and a major contributor to pollution—is not held to the same standards. We have 4 billion square feet of commercial leasable space that was built before energy regulations. We are reigning down energy regulations on new development, but [it should affect] older projects too.”

John Magness, SVP and market leader of the West Region at Hillwood Investment Properties, said that we need to start by gutting the EPA and “stem the tide from the federal level.” However, he added that overhauling the EPA wouldn't do much to change California mandates, because the state has its own policies about the environment. His suggestion: get the developers in a room to work it out. He used the example of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger making the California building codes LEED equivalent. “No one is complaining about it,” he said. “It was adopted because the development community got behind it, but we aren't invited to the table any more.”

Instant Insights /

Developers Complain EPA Regs Have Gone Too Far

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