City Council motions seek a dedicated Mitigation Response Fund for pest and vector control, dedicated casework services, faster cleanup, legal accountability and safeguards against a routine rebuild while establishing a permanent community voice
LOS ANGELES – Today Councilmember Ysabel Jurado introduced a seven-motion Boyle Heights Fire Recovery and Environmental Justice Package aimed at delivering immediate relief, strengthening public accountability and giving communities affected by environmental injustice a permanent voice in City decision-making.
Motions will be available here.
The package comes seven weeks after the June 17 fire at the Lineage-operated cold-storage warehouse at 1400 S. Los Palos Street. The fire burned for more than a week. In the weeks that followed, families have endured smoke and ash, a persistent odor, flies and other pests, disrupted businesses and community spaces, and continuing questions about environmental conditions and the pace of cleanup.
"Boyle Heights families have spent weeks paying the price for a disaster they did not cause," said Councilmember Ysabel Jurado. "Recovery cannot mean removing debris and moving on. It must mean immediate relief from pests and unacceptable conditions, a faster cleanup, public answers, aggressive pursuit of every recoverable dollar from responsible parties, and safeguards against treating this site like a routine rebuild. It must also give communities that have carried Los Angeles' environmental burdens real power over what happens next. This package turns those demands into City action."
“The Lineage Fire has highlighted the legacy of environmental racism in our communities for all of Los Angeles and beyond,” said mark! Lopez, Eastside Community Organizer for East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice. “Health impacting incompatible land use is an everyday reality for low income communities of color. The Environmental Justice Commission can serve as an interdisciplinary body to identify and start to protect our communities from historical harms that continue to function as standard practice today.”
“Boyle Heights has long been forced to bear some of the worst industrial pollution in California, and we have had enough,” said Boyle Heights resident Victoria Berdin. “Alongside neighbors and community organizations, we have volunteered day in and day out and organized rallies to demand accountability. True recovery means building a better city with protections that give a permanent voice to communities that have been constantly marginalized because, regardless of your tax bracket or zip code, ultimately we all deserve healthy communities.”
The Boyle Heights Fire Recovery and Environmental Justice Package is organized around three priorities:
1: Immediate relief and cleanup
- Seek a dedicated Mitigation Response Fund of up to $10 million through the City’s Unappropriated Balance to fully restore public health, welfare, and the local environment of Boyle Heights and Eastside communities.
- Direct proposed budgets, work plans, and feasibility analyses from:
- LA Sanitation (LASAN) to expand and strengthen pest and vector mitigation.
- The Community Investment Department (CID) for LADWP bill payment support and to provide direct casework services and financial assistance to impacted residents and small businesses.
- Call for an expedited cleanup of the warehouse site by urging Governor Newsom to deploy the additional resources to bolster the current site remediation operations.
2: Accountability, transparency and site safeguards
- Direct the Department of Building and Safety (LADBS) to recommend substantially stronger financial penalties ranging from $25,000 to $1 million for serious violations that impose widespread harm on communities.
- Direct LADBS to prepare and present an Interim Control Ordinance to prohibit issuing any applicable permits or certificates of occupancy for large cold storage warehousing and distribution uses within close proximity of residential neighborhoods, parks, schools, day care centers, and libraries in the Boyle Heights community.
- Request a City Attorney assessment of potential civil claims and strategies to recover City costs from Lineage Logistics and any other responsible parties.
- Require LASAN to report final water-quality testing results connected to firefighting runoff and the status of the requested Cleanup and Abatement Order, including remediation plans and timelines.
3: Long-term oversight and community power
- Direct development of an Environmental Justice and Advocacy Advisory Commission so impacted communities can help shape City environmental policy, emergency response and recovery.
Once the motions are introduced, Councilmember Jurado's office will publish the Council file number, final text and status of each proposal here. Introduction is the first legislative step; each item will proceed through the applicable Council process.