OCEANSIDE — The City Council has narrowly rejected the controversial Eddie Jones warehouse project, siding with an appeal from neighboring residents who have opposed the proposal for several years.
In a 3-2 vote on May 21, the council overturned the Planning Commission’s earlier approval of a scaled-back version of the project.
Initially planned as a 566,905-square-foot facility with 114 truck bays at 250 Eddie Jones Way near state Route 76, the revised plan called for a 497,882-square-foot complex divided into four buildings with 34 truck bays. Despite the reduction in scope, many nearby residents expressed concern about the potential impacts on their quality of life.
Gretchen Geary, who appealed the Planning Commission’s approval, said she was representing 236 nearby homes, 45 businesses, and Prince of Peace Abbey. Geary called the project a “mega-industrial complex” better suited to the “vast open spaces of the Inland Empire, not prime coastal real estate two miles from the ocean.”
“It’s hard for people to really wrap their head around how big this building here is,” Geary said. “I’m amazed this was approved by people who understood the magnitude – even after commissioners voiced concerns without concrete reassurances.”
Geary’s appeal cited a range of problems, including non-compliance with city zoning, increased traffic on Benet Road and SR-76 — concerns she said would worsen when the nearby Ocean Kamp housing development is completed, along with environmental impacts, air and noise pollution, and potential effects on wildfire evacuation routes.
Geary also compared the project to a previously rejected Amazon distribution center elsewhere in the city, noting, “The Eddie Jones project is four times the size of that project.”
The developer, RPG (formerly RAF Pacifica Group), and city planning staff rejected many of the appellant’s claims. Dan Niebaum of The Lightfoot Planning Group, representing the developer, said the concerns over air quality “lacked merit or were based on flawed assumptions.”
Niebaum also rejected claims about lead emissions.
Both the developer and staff noted that the 31.79-acre site’s future uses are limited because of soil contamination from past industrial activity. The site once housed the Deutsch Plant, which was built in 1966 for the defense industry’s electronic connectors.
TE Connectivity purchased the property in 2012, using it until 2021, and the original 172,000-square-foot building was demolished in 2022 — the same year the Eddie Jones project was first proposed.
Niebaum also highlighted several potential economic benefits, including 510 permanent jobs, 1,425 construction jobs, $174,000 in city surplus, $1.7 million in annual property taxes, $373,203 in annual city revenue, $2.2 million in development impact fees, and opportunities for “high-quality tenants.”
City officials had previously attached several conditions to the project, including restrictions on truck routes, limits on trailer parking, and the development of traffic and facilities management plans, including a “good neighbor policy.”
Despite those measures, Mayor Esther Sanchez, Deputy Mayor Eric Joyce, and Councilmember Jimmy Figueroa voted against the project, while Councilmembers Rick Robinson and Peter Weiss supported it.
“We absolutely need to invest in more jobs… however, this is a major intensification from previous industrial uses,” Joyce said. “The sound, the soil, the safety, the clean water, air quality. And as Father Charles said, peace itself is at stake.”
Sanchez urged caution regarding future development along the SR-76 corridor, noting that no state funding is available to improve the highway for at least the next 25 years.
“We need to be very careful about what we have and ensure that we have the best projects within our discretion,” she said.
Robinson, who supported the project, argued that the facility would reduce existing fire risks on the site and questioned neighbors’ opposition.
“It’s very clear you don’t want it in your back or front yard, but you’re O.K. with it going into another district in the middle of the city, or 15 miles away, or sending it to Temecula or Fallbrook,” Robinson said.
