Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced an executive order Friday directing city departments to delay rebuilding plan requests at the Lineage Logistics site in Boyle Heights as cleanup continues after a fire at the cold food storage warehouse.
The order asks those departments, which are tasked with reviewing and considering rebuilding permit requests, to place any requests by the operator of the sprawling warehouse on hold while an investigation of the property and any future use of the site is conducted. Bass said her emergency executive order directs those departments to shelve requests until the city and public have an opportunity to review the investigation.
“The people of East LA and Boyle Heights continue to suffer,” Bass said at a City Hall news conference. “Lineage had the audacity to submit plans to rebuild their warehouse… In my opinion, they shouldn’t even think about rebuilding until they’ve cleaned up the mess they’ve created.
“It would be very hard for me to imagine the day we would welcome Lineage back.”
Earlier this week, NBCLA learned a building permit application was filed to re-construct the Lineage Logistics warehouse. The permit application, which was filed on Monday, noted intention to “repair and rebuild fire-damaged portions of the building to original, pre-fire condition.”
Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, whose district includes Boyle Heights, said that it is “outrageous that Lineage is seeking permits to rebuild while the disaster it created has not even been cleaned up.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eVHf4gXL78
Bass also said she is requesting that the city council pursue a moratorium on the building of future large cold storage buildings near neighborhoods.
Bass said Friday that Lineage has 14 days left to remove rotting waste from the burned-out warehouse to meet a 45-day deadline. An estimated 85 million pounds of food, mostly meat and seafood, were being removed from the warehouse.
The fire broke out June 17 at the warehouse at 1400 S. Los Palos St., sending thick smoke into the air and prompting officials to warn nearby residents to remain indoors. The city, county and state issued local emergency declarations in the days that followed. It took more than a week to fully douse the fire.
Lineage has been removing the food waste as part of its recovery process. The company said on July 25 that all food waste from the burned-out part of the building had been sealed in deodorized containers and was being transported off-site.
On Friday, residents planned a rally near the Boyle Heights warehouse. Among their concerns are whether the city-imposed 45-day cleanup deadline following the June fire will be met.
The rally comes a day after the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced it would increase financial penalties up to $2,000 per day against Lineage for ongoing public health violations at the site. The health department has issued six citations against Lineage since July 23.
In its latest statement, Lineage said it is working on several matters related to the cleanup.
“We are working around the clock on odor control, pest control and the removal of food waste and we will not stop until the site is clean and the community can move forward,” the company said in a July 24 statement. “Cleaning up a site with this much food waste is an enormous undertaking and we understand why regulators are watching closely — we would expect nothing less. As more waste is removed and our cleanup efforts progress, we expect conditions to continue to improve. The citations simply reflect the reality of what we’re dealing with not a lack of urgency or commitment on our part. In the full interest of transparency, we are sharing our response to public health officials which was submitted earlier this week. We are moving as fast and safely as we can and doing everything we can for this community until the cleanup is finished.”
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, although Lineage officials have said they believe it started while a subcontractor for Altus Power, which owns the rooftop solar array, was testing the system. Altus Power has said the cause has not been determined, and its primary concern remains the surrounding community.