The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday, Aug. 26, unanimously approved five measures to speed Boyle Heights' recovery from the Lineage Logistics warehouse fire, including creation of a new Environmental Justice and Advocacy Advisory Commission.

All five passed unanimously.

The motions were introduced by Councilwoman Ysabel Jurado, who represents the neighborhood as part of Council District 14. The package directs city agencies to prioritize sanitation, housing enforcement and water quality testing in the area while the cleanup of roughly 88 million pounds of rotting food drags past multiple missed deadlines.

"Recovery also requires us to confront the systems that allowed our community to carry such an extraordinary burden and to build lasting power for the people who live there," Jurado said at the meeting, according to the Eastsider LA.

What the five motions do

Sanitation: For 60 days, the Bureau of Sanitation will coordinate with Jurado's office to prioritize requests in Council District 14, covering bulky item pickup, street sweeping, power washing and dead animal removal.

Water quality: The Bureau of Sanitation will report on final water quality testing of stormwater runoff from the fire that started June 17 and burned for more than a week. The report will also update the cleanup and abatement order issued by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Encampment enforcement paused: The Bureau of Sanitation will suspend CARE+ operations, the city's homeless encampment resolution program, in areas under city or state environmental emergency declarations. The motion also directs the city to codify those guidelines.

Housing code enforcement: For 60 days, the Los Angeles Housing Department will prioritize tenant complaints about code violations, anti-harassment ordinance breaches and rent stabilization issues in Boyle Heights. Housing officials must report within 10 days on recommendations for increasing violation fines during the emergency declaration.

Environmental Justice Commission: The Civil and Human Rights and Equity Department will work to establish the advisory commission, which Jurado described as a "dedicated body through which communities can consistently help shape environmental justice policy and hold government accountable."

Background

The cold-storage warehouse at 1400 S. Los Palos St. caught fire June 17 and burned for more than a week. The city, county and state all issued emergency declarations in the days that followed. The South Coast Air Quality Management District received more than 4,200 odor complaints between July 12 and Aug. 5 and issued 25 notices of violation to Lineage, according to the Eastsider LA.

A St. John's Community Health study released Aug. 18 found that of 1,306 patients seen at mobile clinics, nearly 36% met fire-related exposure criteria, the Los Angeles Times reported. More than 91% of patients were Latino and more than 64% were women.

Lineage has missed multiple cleanup deadlines, including Mayor Karen Bass's 45-day target of Aug. 14 and a South Coast AQMD-tied deadline of Aug. 20. The company retracted a claim that it had removed 104% of food waste, revising the figure to about 90% complete, and said it was targeting Aug. 30 to finish, CBS News reported. Lineage has said it plans to spend $100 million on the effort.

Wednesday's vote came one day after the Planning and Land Use Management Committee recommended blocking any permits to rebuild the warehouse and hiking fines up to $1 million. Those two recommendations are expected before the full council at a future meeting date not yet announced.