Riverside halts new pallet yards after 29 fires since 2025

Raincross Gazette: Riverside City Council voted Tuesday to ban new or expanded wooden pallet storage yards for 45 days while staff drafts permanent zoning and safety rules for the industry. Riverside's zoning code currently treats pallet yards like any other outdoor storage use, with no rules tailored to the fire load of large, tightly stacked stockpiles of dry lumber.

The Fire Department has responded to 29 incidents at pallet yards since January 2025, including a March fire in the Northside neighborhood that damaged multiple businesses and hospitalized three firefighters. City inspectors have documented stacks reaching 20 to 30 feet, sometimes towering above the block walls and fencing meant to contain them. Since 2023, code enforcement has issued 36 violation notices to 11 pallet operators, with nine cases still open.

The freeze is narrowly scoped to pallet yards, but several council members signaled they want staff to come back with broader rules for outdoor storage of combustible materials. Phillip Falcone asked that the question return to the land use committee after the urgency ordinance runs its course. The vote sits alongside a separate council-race debate in the same wards over warehousing and industrial land use — the same constituency, asking the same question about what gets built next to neighborhoods.

The moratorium takes effect immediately and runs 45 days unless extended.