Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass ordered city agencies on Friday to delay the processing of rebuilding permits for the Lineage burned-out cold storage warehouse in Boyle Heights until regulators have found ways to subject the project to strict environmental review.
In an executive order, Bass said the city’s planning and building and safety departments must also determine whether the application to rebuild the Lineage facility — which was destroyed in June, leaving behind an estimated 85 million tons of smelly, rotting food — should be subjected to a lengthy “discretionary review” process.
The mayor also asked the council to approve a moratorium on large cold storage facilities within close proximity of residential neighborhoods and sensitive uses, such as parks and schools.
The moratorium, depending on the actions of the City Council, can be kept in place for up to two years, according to the mayor’s team.
“They shouldn’t even think about rebuilding until they’ve cleaned up the mess they’ve created,” Bass said at a Friday news conference. “This is why I am directing city departments to put their plans up on a shelf while a thorough investigation of the property and any future use is conducted.”
Representatives of Lineage didn’t immediately comment on the order.
Bass stood in front of a display that accused Lineage of refusing to provide sufficient support to help nearby residents relocate to other parts of the city. The display also said the company had refused to address unsanitary conditions, including odors and the spread of flies and rodents into nearby properties.
Bass’ team said 3,800 complaints about Lineage have been lodged with the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which has issued 19 violation notices to the company.
The city and county secured $1.6 million for emergency housing relocation through Airbnb and housing nonprofits, sheltering more than That’s more than 1,300 residents and hundreds of pets. Lineage is claiming it funded relocation, but it has offered only $100,000, according to Bass.
“That’s less than 7% of what we’ve provided,” she said Friday.
The mayor’s order comes after Lineage representatives filed permits with the city to rebuild the warehouse to its “pre-fire condition” Monday, drawing swift condemnation from locals and Bass, who decried the application as “a slap in the face” to Boyle Heights families.
Bass said the Friday directive will not be her last executive order mobilizing resources for Boyle Heights following the fire.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis said she felt like she “was in a warzone,” after visiting the warehouse site.
Solis said that she was planning to present a motion at a Tuesday Board of Supervisors meeting aimed at increasing consequences for businesses that commit public health violations, and expanding support for affected residents.
The county is also taking steps to expand access to landfills beyond normal operating hours to allow Lineage to remove noxious debris around the clock.
“We know that the money is going to run out in terms of Airbnb and providing assistance,” Solis said. “That has to come in right away.”
A day earlier, city officials announced that cleanup efforts at the Lineage cold-storage warehouse in Boyle Heights were nearing the halfway mark, six weeks after a fire at the depot left millions of pounds of rotting food to pollute the Los Angeles neighborhood.
The city’s focus is shifting from providing immediate relief to removing noxious debris, reducing foul odors and tainted air, and putting affected residents into interim housing, said Jon Brown, assistant general manager of the Los Angeles Emergency Management Department.
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