In a ruling that hits pause on Tulare’s push for new industrial growth, a Tulare County judge on Friday ordered the City of Tulare to follow the California Environmental Quality Act before approving cold-storage and other industrial facilities, and voided the city’s 2024 zoning update that had allowed those uses to be permitted by right. The decision is the latest turn in a years-long fight between residents of the nearby Matheny Tract and city officials over where heavy industry and refrigerated warehouses can be built.
According to a press release from the Office of the Attorney General, the Superior Court of Tulare County found that the Zoning Ordinance Update violated CEQA and directed the city to rescind its approval and complete environmental review before any future approvals under that update. Attorney General Rob Bonta also highlighted the decision publicly; in a post on Rob Bonta on X he called the ruling a win for Matheny Tract residents and for environmental justice.
How the case got here
The state sued Tulare in January 2025 after the city adopted a comprehensive zoning update that critics argued let large cold-storage warehouses move forward by right, with limited public notice or required mitigation. Local reporting at the time outlined how community groups and labor unions joined the legal challenge; GV Wire has background on the consolidated lawsuits.
Why Matheny Tract residents pushed back
State filings and the court record emphasize that Matheny Tract, a historically segregated neighborhood now home to roughly 1,000 people, sits directly next to Tulare’s industrial parcels and already faces elevated pollution burdens. The Attorney General’s office and the court pointed to evidence that refrigerated trucks’ transport refrigeration units, or TRUs, emit fine particulate matter and nitrogen oxides and can increase cancer and other health risks. The Attorney General’s statement and filings summarize those concerns. For additional context on TRU pollution and policy, the California Air Resources Board has tightened TRU rules and is pushing turnover to zero-emission refrigeration units to reduce near-source harms, as detailed by CARB.
City response and local context
Tulare city officials have previously disputed the state’s claims, arguing that the zoning update did not change long-standing permitted uses and pointing to earlier planning and infrastructure work tied to Matheny Tract. Local coverage of the original lawsuit captured the city manager’s position that Tulare had followed state law and would consider bringing in specialized legal counsel to defend the ordinance; that response was reported in the San Joaquin Valley Sun. From here, the city can either seek appellate review or restart the zoning process in line with CEQA requirements.
Legal implications
The court’s order requires Tulare to void its contested approval of the 2024 Zoning Ordinance Update and to carry out CEQA review, including any needed environmental analyses and mitigation, before granting approvals under that update. CEQA litigation typically runs through writs of mandate and can be appealed to higher courts, and appellate rules and exhaustion doctrines shape when and how those disputes are reviewed, as legal precedent explains.
What this could mean beyond Tulare
Advocates say the ruling underscores that by-right permitting cannot serve as a blanket workaround for environmental review when substantial public health impacts are foreseeable. Developers and cities across the Central Valley and elsewhere are likely to watch whether Tulare’s next steps involve shifting to conditional uses, adding mitigation measures, or tightening siting rules to limit transport refrigeration unit operations near homes and other sensitive communities.
