(Central Valley) Leadership Council

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 23, 2026

MEDIA CONTACT
Thairy Martinez, 213-421-7304, tmartinez@leadershipcounsel.org

Visalia, CA — After a year of litigation, a Tulare County judge ordered the City of Tulare to void its approval of a Zoning Ordinance Update that allowed the City to approve certain light and heavy industrial uses without complying with state environmental law. 

The update, approved in December 2024, allowed the City to approve certain harmful industrial uses — including cold-storage and warehouse facilities — with “by-right” review in light and heavy industrial zones. These projects are often sited close to communities and schools, including in Matheny Tract. This update completely eliminated environmental analysis for these projects. Notably, the City’s own general plan acknowledged that these projects can harm public health and required mitigation as a result. The Zoning Update walked these positive changes back and failed to implement this required mitigation. 

Matheny Tract, a residential and unincorporated community, is surrounded on three sides by City jurisdiction and is encroached by industrially zoned land. For many years, residents living in the small town have endured impacts from heavy truck traffic, warehouse activity, and heavy machinery passing through their neighborhood, raising concerns about their air quality and health. Residents intervened in the case because they saw the zoning changes as another willful action on behalf of the City to allow industrial development without informing and engaging the community in a process which has the potential to impact their health and quality of life. 

“We want it to be known that the City is harming us, our community,” said Hugo Trujillo, a member of the Matheny Tract Committee. “We aren’t against development. We’re against projects that affect our health, with their traffic, their noise and above all for not taking into account the environmental impact. Going over our community and making decisions that affect us, without us.” 

The consolidated lawsuits heard on Thursday, brought by Petitioners that include the California Department of Justice and Matheny Tract Committee, argued that the City improperly relied on a “common sense exemption” to California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and adopted zoning changes that conflict with its own General Plan, previously adopted in 2014 to address air quality and health impacts associated with industrial development. 

“This decision means that the City will need to engage the public and conduct environmental review of its zoning ordinance update,” said Seth Alston, staff attorney with Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability. “This is a critical win for public health and the residents of Matheny Tract.” 

As a result of the ruling, the City is required to rescind its approval of the Zoning Ordinance Update and fully comply with the environmental review required by CEQA before any future approval actions. Any future project approvals must also comply with the proper health protection measure requiring warehouses near homes to conduct health risk assessments and reduce air pollution impacts before approval. 

Although the decision does not reject any specific project, it restores the expectation that major industrial developments — especially those with known environmental consequences and health implications — cannot move forward without following and respecting safeguards already in place by state law.

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Matheny Tract Committee is a resident-led group made up of individuals who live in and around the unincorporated community of Matheny Tract. The Committee was formed to advocate for fair land-use practices, environmental protections, and meaningful community participation in decisions that affect their neighborhoods.

Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability works alongside the most impacted communities in the San Joaquin Valley and Eastern Coachella Valley to advocate for sound policy and eradicate injustice to secure equal access to opportunity regardless of wealth, race, income, and place. Leadership Counsel focuses on issues like housing, land use, transportation, safe and affordable drinking water and climate change impacts on communities.

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