Revelations that Amazon had prepared an eight-page community engagement plan to push back against efforts to curb new warehouse construction in Southern California has reignited debate over how and whether to regulate new logistics developments.

The Amazon memo was first posted Dec. 5 on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, by Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, the executive secretary-treasurer for the California Labor Federation, a group that encompasses more than 1,200 unions. The memo was also posted by the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, an Ontario, California-based group that said it is dedicated to improving working conditions in the Southern California warehouse industry.

The memo calls for Amazon to polish its image and “support our Southern California legislative agenda” by cultivating ties through donations to community groups, nonprofits, school districts and other groups in the region.

"Amazon also faces significant reputational challenges in Southern California, where the company is perceived to build facilities in predominantly communities of color and poverty, negatively impacting their health," according to the memo. "Combined with labor organizing efforts, and the brand and reputational risks remain substantial in Southern California."

In his post on the leaked document, Warehouse Worker Resource Center Executive Director Sheheryar Kaoosji said the plan showed "Amazon sees our community as nothing more than warehouses and bodies to staff those warehouses. It’s a paper thin facade and they should invest just as much time into actually addressing working conditions, pay and the extreme environmental cost to Southern California and the people here.”

Amazon verified the authenticity of the memo but called the post by the Warehouse Worker Resource Center "a blatant mischaracterization" of the company's philanthropic work with communities across the country.

"Partnerships with community leaders and stakeholders help guide how Amazon gives back," Amazon spokesperson Jennifer Flagg said in an email. "Through employee volunteerism or our charitable donations, it is always Amazon's intention to help support the communities where we work in a way that is most responsive to the needs of that community.”

The document noted the failure of a local ballot measure this year to impose a warehouse tax in the Inland Empire city of Perris, and names Perris Mayor Michael Vargas as an “influential elected leader that we have cultivated through [personal protective equipment] donations to support the region.”

The city and Vargas did not respond to a request to comment, but the mayor denied in a statement to the Los Angeles Times that he had been cultivated by Amazon or that he had a cozy relationship with the company.

The memo also mentioned efforts by two California lawmakers to impose new restrictions on warehouse development, including Assembly Bill 1000 introduced by Eloise Gómez Reyes and Assembly Bill 1748, sponsored by James Ramos, two Democrats representing districts in the Inland Empire, where Amazon has a growing number of warehouse and fulfillment centers.

Their measures and other legislative proposals across the nation seek to control new projects by ensuring the facilities are placed in what backers consider appropriate locations away from homes, apartments, schools, day care centers, churches and other sensitive areas.

After Amazon's memo leaked, Ramos announced plans for changes to AB 1748, which is set to come up for hearings in Sacramento next year, that would align the bill with new state rules intended to encourage zero-emission trucks and cut back on what environmentalists claim is rising air pollution in neighborhoods near warehouses.

“It is crucial that we work toward a compromise in the Inland Empire to ensure we protect local jobs and address environmental concerns — especially after learning today of an active effort by Amazon to halt a balanced approach to this issue,” Ramos said in a statement.

Reyes, whose AB 1000 would have required developers to build warehouses at least 1,000 feet from houses, apartments and other “sensitive uses” in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, said in a statement that the leaked memo “reveals Amazon's strategy of funneling funds to non-profits to oppose crucial legislation protecting our communities from the impact of warehouses and hindering labor organizing.”

Reyes’ office did not respond to questions from CoStar News about whether she will reintroduce the bill, which did not advance through the legislature this year, or similar legislation in 2024.

Others, though, oppose bans on warehouse development. The National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, better known as NAIOP, has opposed prior efforts to restrict warehouse development from California to New Jersey since 2022. The association is the nation's largest trade group representing office and industrial real estate owners and brokers.

“There will again be efforts to pass state legislation to regulate warehouses in 2024, and we expect legislation like AB 1000 by Assemblywoman Reyes will reemerge in 2024,” Timothy Jemal, CEO of NAIOP SoCal, one of the association’s largest chapters, told CoStar News in an email. “A de facto ban on warehouse developments would do great harm to the California economy, jeopardize thousands of jobs and place at risk critical local tax revenues. “

Many proposed restrictions are "bad public policy" designed to usurp local control over land-use decisions, Jemal added.

“All stakeholders including business, community members and real estate owners, must be allowed to have their voices heard when development decisions are made by local governments," added Jemal, who declined to comment on Amazon’s community engagement efforts.