The current Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling center in Fresno on Malaga Street is seen in this Google Street View photo.

A soft drink bottler’s plans for expansion in Fresno were approved by the Fresno City Council on Thursday.

The council unanimously voted to approve a new Coca-Cola distribution center in south Fresno near the Amazon distribution complex.

Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling LLC wants to expand its operations by building a new distribution center on 15 acres near East and North avenues, nearly a mile north of Highway 99 from its current facility in Malaga.

Thursday’s vote follows an approval from the Fresno Planning Commission in February.

The center will be built on vacant property at 791 and 998 E. North Ave., which is zoned Heavy Industrial.

 

The project will cover 204,979 square feet of warehouse space with an additional two-story office. The proposed plan comes with an expansion option of 40,300 square feet for the warehouse.

Pehr Peterson, representing Reyes Holdings, said they have outgrown their current 65,000 square foot facility in Malaga. 

There are currently 214 employees working at the Malaga center. The new site will employ 285 employees, with future growth possible. 

Councilmember Miguel Arias said neighbors of the proposed facility expressed concerns about air and light pollution from trucks and other operations. 

The approval came with conditions for Reyes including dedicated truck routes, ride share areas for employees and the use of electric vehicles and solar energy.

“The applicant has been working pretty well to identify the issues neighbors had for years,” Arias said.

Natalie Delgado, a policy advocate for the Leadership Counsel for Justice & Accountability’s Fresno office, said at the council meeting that despite data from CalEnviroScreen showing South Central Fresno is in the top 1% of the most pollution-burdened areas in California, the city continues to push industrial projects forward and put the health of residents last.

In 2017, the city began forming the Southwest Fresno Specific Plan (SWSP) to combat and undo historical inequities and underinvestment in Southwest Fresno because of policies, including redlining, that clustered industrial uses near low-income communities in the area.

Delgado said approving projects like the Coca-Cola distribution center before the SWSP is completed shows the city wants to use the area as an “industrial playground.”

“The SWSP must ensure that city planning is conducted in an ethical, safe way that prioritizes the quality of life and health of disadvantaged communities in south central [Fresno].” Delgado said.

Coca-Cola advances plan for 204K square-foot Fresno bottling facility