California Attorney General Rob Bonta has sent letters to Riverside County and seven Inland Empire cities alleging they are not complying with a state law requiring new truck routes that steer diesel-powered trucks away from homes, schools and other sensitive sites. The letters went to Chino, Moreno Valley, Perris, Rancho Cucamonga, Rialto, Riverside, Ontario and Riverside County, all of which missed a January 1, 2026, deadline to redraw their routes, according to the attorney general's office.
A Law Meant to Shield Neighborhoods From Diesel Traffic
The law at the center of the dispute, AB 98, was enacted in 2024 and sets statewide development standards for new large warehouses while requiring cities and counties to keep trucks away from sensitive land uses by redrawing permitted truck routes. As reported by The Press-Enterprise, the law protects homes, schools, day cares and other sensitive land uses, and cities and counties across the warehouse-heavy region had until January 1, 2026, to amend their general plans with new routes. Bonta separately issued an enforcement advisory reminding jurisdictions to route trucks to minimize exposure to residences, schools, day cares, parks and playgrounds, according to the California Attorney General's office.
Bonta said the state is “fighting for vulnerable communities” by preventing pollution, noise, traffic and potholes from trucks cutting through neighborhoods, per the Press-Enterprise's reporting. Former Assemblymember Eloise Gómez Reyes, who sponsored AB 98, said Inland Empire communities have carried an outsized share of pollution and public health impacts tied to moving goods throughout California, the paper reported. Noncompliant cities and counties risk fines of up to $50,000 every six months, though the letter does not explicitly threaten legal action, according to the same report.
Riverside County Says It's Behind but Working on It
Riverside County, which is responsible for planning in unincorporated areas such as Mead Valley and has one of the largest concentrations of warehouses in California, acknowledges it has not met the deadline. The county has not met the statutory January 1, 2026 deadline to adopt truck routes, according to Citizen Portal, which reported that county transportation staff said the required general-plan circulation updates to designate truck routes had not been completed. The county is providing monthly progress reports to the attorney general while pursuing outreach and mapping, the outlet reported.
Kevin Tsang, a county official, said staff are making a good-faith push to catch up, telling Citizen Portal, “We are putting our good faith effort to do that,” and noting the county remains in contact with the attorney general's office. Felisa Cardona said Riverside County has made significant progress in crafting new truck routes, according to the Press-Enterprise, and the county has said developing compliant routes requires coordination with cities, regional partners and affected communities.
Moreno Valley's Compliance Push
Moreno Valley has moved to formalize its own truck-route rules. The city says it is coordinating with nearby cities and Riverside County “to make sure truck routes connect smoothly across city boundaries,” according to the City of Moreno Valley. The city council held a public hearing on August 18 to consider an ordinance adopting logistics-use mitigation measures negotiated with the attorney general's office, and the city has said it will install signage identifying designated truck routes and publish route maps in GIS format.
Moreno Valley also points to standards it says flow from AB 98 and a related law, SB 415, requiring freight routes to avoid residential areas and sensitive receptors while maximizing use of interstate and state divided highways. The city says logistics-use developments must submit a Truck Routing Plan for review and approval before getting a certificate of occupancy, and that heavy-duty truck engines cannot idle for more than three minutes at a logistics-use site. The city also points to freight-route standards intended to keep trucks away from residential districts.
Mixed Responses From Perris, Ontario and Riverside
Not every city named in Bonta's letters describes the same level of lag. Perris said it has made every effort to comply with AB 98 deadlines, attributing its delay primarily to additional technical analysis and environmental review, according to the Press-Enterprise. The Perris City Council plans to approve new truck routes in December, and a related CEQA filing shows the city's truck-route plan update would add one truck route and remove three to come into compliance, per the California Environmental Quality Act database.
The Press-Enterprise reported that Ontario's city council changed truck routes after gathering community feedback through a survey and various events, but the attorney general's advisory lists Ontario among jurisdictions that had not amended their general plans by the deadline. The city of Riverside said it could not comment on the letter because it had not yet received it, the paper reported.
Advocates Push for Accountability
Community advocates welcomed Bonta's letters as a sign of state follow-through. Ana Gonzalez praised Bonta for sending the letter but also criticized Inland governments, in emailed comments to the Press-Enterprise, for insufficient resident engagement on redrawing truck routes. The People's Collective for Environmental Justice applauded the letters and urged noncompliant Inland Empire cities and counties to comply swiftly and transparently with AB 98, calling on the attorney general's office to hold accountable entities that sidestep their legal responsibilities, according to the same report.
The stakes are visible beyond the compliance paperwork. In Mead Valley, an unincorporated community Riverside County oversees, the area already has about 2,000 square feet of warehouse space per resident, one of the highest ratios in the Inland Empire, according to the Los Angeles Times. Rezoning applications already submitted by developers there would add more than 1,000 additional acres of warehouse projects, and county leaders have been reviewing a dozen requests to convert rural residential land to industrial use, the Times reported. Riverside and San Bernardino counties together have more than 1 billion square feet of warehouses, per a recent estimate cited by the Press-Enterprise, underscoring why advocates say the stakes of enforcing AB 98's truck-route rules go well beyond paperwork deadlines.
