Rialto | Warehouses and Hazard Zones

Rialto, California Warehouses and Hazard Zones: AB 98 Buffers Near Homes, Fire Hazard Maps, Flood Zones and Fault Zones

Rialto's code allows warehouses in twelve industrial zones and sets extra rules for those near homes. The City regulates warehouses, which its code calls indoor storage facilities, in Chapter 18.112 of the Rialto Municipal Code, amended in 2025 to comply with state Assembly Bill 98. Those rules treat homes and residentially zoned land as places to protect, so they limit what can be built next to a housing site. Other chapters set rules for fire hazard zones, flood areas and earthquake fault zones, and the City's SB 9 chapters use those maps to decide where two-home projects are allowed. This page covers each. The Rialto overview has the summary.

How Rialto Got Its 2025 Warehouse Rules

Chapter 18.112 dates from Ordinance No. 1653 of January 26, 2021. Its stated purpose is "to minimize impacts to sensitive uses, such as residential uses, educational uses, and public parks." The City's AB 98 Compliance page explains what came next: "On September 29, 2024, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 98 (AB 98) into law establishing environmental and design standards for logistics facilities near sensitive receptors." The law required cities to set truck routes that avoid homes and to adopt state design standards for new or expanded logistics buildings.

• November 12, 2024. The City Council adopted Resolution No. 8303, a General Plan update with "an amended Circulation Element with designated truck routes intended to avoid residential areas and sensitive receptors."
• January 28, 2025. The Council agenda listed Urgency Ordinance No. 1697, an ordinance written to take effect at once, "DECLARING A TEMPORARY MORATORIUM ON THE ESTABLISHMENT, MODIFICATION, EXPANSION, OR INTENSIFICATION OF 'INDOOR STORAGE FACILITIES.'" A moratorium is a temporary stop on new approvals.
• February 25, 2025. The agenda listed Urgency Ordinance No. 1698 to extend the moratorium "FOR AN ADDITIONAL TEN (10) MONTHS AND FIFTEEN (15) DAYS." The Supplement History Table records both ordinances with those dates.
• September 2025. Ordinance No. 1703 amended Chapter 18.112 "FOR COMPLIANCE WITH CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLY BILL 98." The September 9 agenda lists its first reading and the September 23 agenda its second reading.
• September and October 2025. Economic Development Committee agendas listed "Zone Change Recommendations for Industrial-Residential Interface Areas," with map exhibits. No zone change from that item was found in the Council records read through October 2026.

Section 18.112.030 limits the new text to later projects. It "shall not apply to existing indoor storage uses or entitlement applications" that "were filed with the planning division on or before September 29, 2024"; those follow the 2021 ordinance.

What Counts as a Sensitive Receptor

Section 18.112.020 defines a sensitive receptor as one or more of: "A residence," "Residentially zoned land," "A school," "A daycare facility," publicly owned parks, playgrounds and recreation areas, nursing homes and similar live-in housing, and hospitals. Two points matter for a housing site. Residentially zoned land counts even when it is vacant, so the buffers below protect a lot before a home is built. And the definition depends on the home or the zoning, so a house on industrial land is still "A residence."

The same section defines the three kinds of facility. A logistics facility stores cargo "for later distribution to businesses or retail customers," with heavy-duty trucks doing most of the moving. A fulfillment center fills "numerous customer orders associated with electronic commerce." A storage warehouse stores goods for bulk sale or distribution. A heavy-duty truck is a class 7 or class 8 truck, meaning a gross vehicle weight rating above 26,000 pounds.

Where Warehouses May Go

Section 18.112.040 allows indoor storage facilities, with a conditional development permit from the Planning Commission, in twelve zones: the M-1 and M-2 manufacturing zones, three industrial zones of the Rialto Airport Specific Plan, the medium and heavy industrial zones of the Agua Mansa Specific Plan, the urban services zone of the Central Area Specific Plan, the industrial park zone of the Gateway Specific Plan, and the freeway incubator, employment and business center zones of the Renaissance Specific Plan.

Next to homes, a stricter rule applies. "New or modified storage warehouses and logistics facilities larger than fifty thousand square feet in size and new fulfillment centers of any size, and the parcels of land in which they are located on, shall not be located adjacent to or across a street or intersection from any sensitive receptor," unless the Planning Commission can make four findings:

• Traffic. "All vehicle traffic shall be routed away from, and not pass, residentially used and zoned land, schools, parks," unless no other reasonable route exists and the traffic will not disrupt those uses.
• Screening. "Sufficient buffering with buildings and landscaping" must screen homes from truck access, parking and operations.
• Building size. The building "shall not be imposing or overwhelming" to adjacent homes; the code lists lower heights, several smaller buildings and lower grades as methods.
• Truck courts. Truck courts and other working areas must be "located away from and not be visible or disruptive to" adjacent homes.

New facilities must also sit on arterial roads, collector roads, major thoroughfares or local roads that mainly serve commercial uses, meaning "more than fifty percent of the properties fronting the road within one thousand feet" are commercial or industrial. A map exhibit prepared for the Economic Development Committee in 2025 states the rule in one line: "Storage warehouse buildings larger than 50,000 square feet may not be built adjacent to or across the street from residential zones." The City's entitlement checklist widens the public notice area for these projects: mailing labels cover all properties "within 660' (1,000' for warehouse developments)."

Buffers and Loading Bay Distances

Source: Rialto Municipal Code Sec. 18.112.050, subsection B, paragraphs 4 to 6 (Supplement 39).

The buffer is measured "from the property line of all adjacent sensitive receptors." It must include "a solid decorative wall, landscaped berm and wall, or landscaped berm ten feet or more in height" (a berm is a raised bank of earth) and trees "planted in two rows along the length of the property line," each at least a thirty-six-inch box size and no more than thirty feet apart. A public street or another parcel of the required width may serve as the buffer. Heavy-duty truck drive aisles are barred "on the sides of the building that are directly adjacent to a sensitive receptor property line," and trucks need a separate entrance reached from a truck route or main road.

• Building setback. Buildings must be set back from a street "by a minimum of one foot for every one foot of building height, but no less than twenty-five feet."
• Idling. Signs must post "a three-minute heavy-duty truck engine idling restriction" at entrances and loading bays, and loading areas need electric hook-ups.
• Truck routes. Each application needs an operations and truck route plan that avoids sensitive receptors "to the greatest extent feasible" and prevents trucks from queuing or parking on public streets.
• Screen walls. Truck courts must be screened by walls of eight to fourteen feet, and street frontages need a fifteen-foot landscaped setback.

When a Warehouse Replaces Homes

Section 18.112.050 protects homes on a warehouse site. All new or expanded facilities "shall provide a two-to-one replacement of any demolished housing unit that was on site and occupied within the last ten years," unless the Chief Building Official had declared the home substandard before the developer bought it. "For each housing unit demolished, regardless of market value of the unit, two units of affordable housing for people and families of low or moderate income" that are deed-restricted "shall be built within the jurisdiction." Any fee collected for replacement must be used for housing within three years. A facility that affects homes through purchase must also "provide any displaced tenant with an amount equivalent to twelve months' rent at the current rate."

Warehouse projects continue under these rules. The January 27, 2026 City Council agenda listed a "664,859 Square Foot Industrial Warehouse Building" at Locust Avenue and Lowell Street in the Rialto Airport Specific Plan, with an environmental impact report and a development agreement.

Hazard Zones and What Each Requires

Sources: Rialto Municipal Code Sec. 18.113.050, 17.51.050, 18.75.170 and 18.74.030 (Supplement 39); Rialto Fire Department presentation, June 2025.

Fire Hazard Severity Zones

The State Fire Marshal maps fire hazard severity zones as moderate, high or very high, based on terrain, vegetation, fire history and weather. The City's Fire Hazard Severity Zones page says the state issued new recommended maps for San Bernardino County on March 24, 2025, that "Local agencies shall not decrease the FHSZ level recommended," and that "the Rialto Fire Department is not proposing any additions or increases." The Fire Department's June 2025 presentation to the City Council says "The map updates removed the very high fire hazard severity zone from the City of Rialto, However, expanded the high & moderate fire hazard severity zones." The Council's July 22, 2025 agenda listed the second reading of Ordinance No. 1700 adopting the maps, and the Supplement History Table gives that date for the ordinance.

• High zone. The presentation says the state building code's Chapter 7A, the chapter on wildfire-resistant construction, "applies to new construction in the very high and high fire hazard severity zones but does not apply to the moderate fire hazard severity zone." Sellers in high and very high zones must disclose the zone.
• Existing buildings. "Impacts are not retroactive to existing permitted development."
• SB 9. Chapters 18.113 and 17.51 allow SB 9 projects in a very high zone only with five measures: a paved street at least forty feet wide with two access points, fire sprinklers in all enclosed structures, every side of each home within 150 feet of hose reach, compliance with fire code rules for the zone, and a 5,000 gallon water reservoir per home where there is no pool. Under the 2025 maps as the Fire Department describes them, no Rialto lot is in the very high zone.
• Check the address. The City's page links the state map and explains how to search an address.

Flood Areas

Chapter 18.75 applies to "all areas of special flood hazards." Section 18.75.050 defines such an area as one "subject to a 1 percent or greater chance of flooding in any given year," shown on the flood maps of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Ordinance No. 1693 of May 14, 2024 updated the chapter to use "The Flood Insurance Study for San Bernardino County and Incorporated Areas," dated May 8, 2024. In those areas, Section 18.75.130 requires a development permit "before any construction or other development begins," and Section 18.75.140 names the City Engineer as floodplain administrator. New homes, and existing homes that undergo what the chapter calls substantial improvement, must have "the lowest floor, including basement," raised "one foot above the base flood elevation," the water level of the one-percent flood. In an AO zone, an area of shallow flooding, the floor must be one foot higher than the depth number on the map, or two feet above the ground where no depth is given. An engineer or surveyor certifies the floor height when the home is finished.

The SB 9 chapters exclude a lot "Within a one hundred-year flood hazard" area unless it has a FEMA map revision letter or meets federal flood management rules, and a lot in a regulatory floodway unless the development "has received a no-rise certification," an engineer's finding that the project will not raise flood levels. Government Code 66499.41 has similar flood limits for small-lot maps.

Fault Zones and Hazardous Waste

Earthquake fault zones. Chapter 18.74 applies inside the special studies zones the State Geologist maps under the Alquist-Priolo Act. "All applications for a permit for a real estate development or for a structure for human occupancy" there "shall be accompanied by a geologist's report" that defines "any hazard of surface fault rupture." The City's geologist may waive the report if no undue hazard exists and the State Geologist approves. An application is not complete "until the geologic report required by the act has been accepted as complete or until a waiver thereof has been finally approved." The maps are on file with the Director of Development Services. SB 9 projects are excluded in a fault zone "unless all development on the site complies with applicable seismic protection building code standards."

Hazardous waste. Chapter 18.47 places a hazardous waste overlay on the heavy industrial district of the Agua Mansa Industrial Corridor Specific Plan. Section 18.47.040 prohibits any business that generates, stores, transfers, treats or transports hazardous waste in the A-1, R-1, R-3, R-4 and planned residential zones, in the commercial zones, and in the Northwest Rialto, Central Area and Gateway specific plans. The SB 9 chapters exclude "A hazardous waste site that has not been cleared for residential use."

Where to Go Next

Related on VanPlex: the Rialto overview, the property tax, fire zones and insurance page and the lot eligibility page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Official sources (checked October 2026)