A Los Angeles City Council committee will vote Tuesday on whether to withhold reconstruction permits for Lineage Logistics’ burned-out cold-storage warehouse in Boyle Heights as pressure mounts on the company after it missed key deadlines to remove food waste.
The Planning and Land Use Management Committee is expected to vote on two separate but related motions that seek to bar the company from rebuilding its damaged property at 1400 S. Los Palos St. and to increase fines ranging from $25,000 to $1 million for notices of violations or noncompliance.
Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, who represents the 14th Council District, where the cold-storage warehouse is located, has stated that she does not want any permits issued to the company until a full investigation into the cause of the fire is complete and other requirements are met.
She additionally hopes to secure an interim control ordinance, or temporary law, prohibiting demolition, building, land use, grading and other applicable permits or certificates of occupancy for large cold-storage warehousing and distribution uses in close proximity to residential neighborhoods and sensitive sites, such as parks, schools, day care centers and libraries in Boyle Heights.
The committee’s action is expected to come one day after The LA Local and Boyle Heights Beat, two online news publications, reported discrepancies in Lineage Logistics’ daily updates on food waste removal.
A representative for Lineage Logistics did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Friday, Lineage said in a community update on its website that it had removed 104% of the rotting food waste from the warehouse — a figure that was hotly contested by local residents because the cleanup was not complete, according to The LA Local.
In a subsequent community update Sunday, Lineage said Freezer 2 had been demolished and all food waste removed, while Freezer 1, which remains, was 92% clear of food waste, The LA Local reported.
“Our prior reporting percentage tied weight removed from the building relative to our estimates of total food weight at the time of the fire,” Lineage told The LA Local in a statement. “That approach produced figures greater than 100% in our reporting this week, potentially creating the misimpression that food removal waste was complete when it is not.”
The company said that moving forward it would measure 100% cleanup when “food waste removal is fully done,” according to its statement.
Lineage Logistics is likely to face increasing fines from a regulatory agency, as well as city and county departments.
The company pushed back its deadline for completing food removal until Aug. 30, almost a week after a deadline established by a South Coast Air Quality Management District hearing board earlier this month.
Lineage had also not completed the task by an Aug. 14 deadline cited by Los Angeles officials, although the company insisted the 45-day deadline set by Mayor Karen Bass did not expire until this past Friday.
As cleanup continues at the cold-storage warehouse following the June 17 fire, the stench of rotting food and pest problems have disrupted the surrounding neighborhood, according to reports.
Company officials said they have already begun the next phase of the cleanup, which involves “proactive decontamination and cleaning in parallel with removing the remaining loose debris, including power washing, disinfecting, detailing and deodorizing.”
“Our focus remains on fully remediating the site to eliminate odor impacts on the surrounding community,” according to Lineage.