Desert Hot Springs OKs plan for hotels and warehouse off Interstate 10

The Desert Hot Springs City Council approved plans this week that call for two hotels, retail shops and a 1 million-square-foot warehouse and distribution center on on a 65-acre parcel by Interstate 10.

It's unclear when the project will be built, and further city approvals would be required.

Located at the northwest corner of 20th Avenue and Calle de los Romos, the “Desert Gateway Specific Plan” proposes a mixed-use project with retail commercial, light-industrial and logistics uses, the latter of which could employ 450 people.

That includes two hotels with up to 150 rooms total, up to 42,000 square feet of commercial retail space and a logistics, warehouse and light industrial space of up to 1,060,000 square feet.

The latter building can be up to 100 feet and five stories tall. Desert Hot Springs approved a zoning amendment in January that increased the maximum building heights in its industrial zone from two stories and 50 feet to five stories and 120 feet.

This decision was expected to bring more warehouses to the area, and the Planning Commission soon okayed a 3.4-million-square-foot warehouse dubbed Project Viento and later purchased by Amazon. The “Desert Gateway Specific Plan” is near that planned warehouse, the Mission Springs Water District's new incoming wastewater treatment facility and Coachillin' Business Park.

Five years ago, in November 2017, the council approved a different plan at the site, the “Desert Harvest Specific Plan,” that allowed for a 1.5 million-square-foot cannabis cultivation facility and up to 45,000 square feet of retail commercial space. It never came to fruition.

The lawyer for that applicant was Michael J. Avenatti, who months after the approval became nationally famous for representing adult film actress Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against then-President Donald Trump. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, alleged she'd been paid off during Trump's 2016 campaign for president to keep quiet about an affair the two had years earlier. Trump denied the claims and said he never had a relationship with her.

Avenatti has since been convicted in multiple criminal cases of offenses that include defrauding Daniels and other clients, extortion and obstructing the IRS. He was sentenced Monday to 14 years in federal prison.

Avenatti is not involved in the new Desert Hot Springs development, a city spokesperson said.

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The Desert Hot Springs Planning Commission recommended the project for the council’s approval on Nov. 21. Councilmembers greenlit the plan with a 4-0 vote on Tuesday night, with Councilmember Russell Betts absent.

Mayor Pro Tem Gary Gardner said the hotels are needed in Desert Hot Springs. He has long-advocated that the city needs a more balanced tax revenue stream that isn’t dependent on cannabis.

“We don't have any, in the freeway frontage, transit hotels yet. We have our wonderful boutique spas, that's different,” he said. “We could use some … hotel taxes from people going down the freeway, and that's something that would come with this project as well.”

Environmental groups raise concerns

Some environmental groups raised alarm bells about the project, citing concerns with things like air quality, greenhouse gas and energy impacts.

Adam Frankel, an attorney representing Supporters Alliance for Environmental Responsibility, said the plan could mean “a significant increase in the severity of the project's previously identified environmental effects” and doesn’t properly disclose or mitigate its new environmental impacts.

“What was previously approved as a cannabis cultivation campus is now being proposed for use as an industrial warehouse building totaling over 1 million square feet,” Frankel said. “These changes cannot plausibly be described as minor technical revisions, but will instead in fact have major environmental impacts that must be evaluated through an appropriate (California Environmental Quality Act) review process.”

SAFER requested the council reject the new plan and return the project to planning for further environmental review.

Frankel also mentioned the large Amazon warehouse planned nearby.

“Given that that project was found to involve significant and unavoidable air quality impacts, any additional industrial projects within its vicinity must be evaluated for their cumulative contributions to local and regional air quality,” he said.

But Deputy City Manager Doria Wilms said the environmental document contemplated the uses in the current project, such as hotel, retail and logistics.

"So any future project that comes forward, so long as it complies with the specific plan and it doesn't increase impacts of what was already contemplated ... then the underlying environmental document would suffice," she said.

Brian Flynn, an attorney who works with Frankel, said Thursday their firm is conferring with SAFER to decide whether to pursue litigation. He said they have around 30 days to do that.

The Sierra Club also had concerns about the project.

Joan Taylor, a member of the Sierra Club, said the group will be pursuing improvements to the project. She said litigation is always a possibility, but the group will focus on reaching out to the city in the near term.

“We're not opposed to logistics in that locale, but … there were feasible mitigations for some of the impacts of logistics that weren't analyzed or adopted,” she said. “So we definitely would like to work with the city if possible rather than have a confrontation.”

She said the group would seek changes similar to those in its settlement agreement with the city and Seefried Industrial Properties on Project Viento, which included renewable energy, energy efficiency, and transportation terms. The Sierra Club and Oswit Land Trust had appealed the Planning Commission’s approval of the project.

Mayor Scott Matas said he’s confident the developer will work with the environmental groups “to get to a happy medium.” He asked them to give councilmembers a fair chance to read their arguments and put together an opportunity to work with developers in the future.

“City of Desert Hot Springs worked really hard on the General Plan a couple years ago to make sure that we had all the environmental needs for that area completed,” he said.

Gardner said an entirely new environmental impact report is unnecessary, and both he and Wilms said the project already includes solar energy as required by state law.

A timeline for when the project will be built is still up in the air. Wilms said the city has had applicants modify specific plans and sit on it for a couple years while trying to find a developer to build. She was not aware of any applications for the project as of Thursday.

"A future project would still need to come forward and go through the proper process for their particular development," she added.

Ani Gasparyan covers the western Coachella Valley cities of Desert Hot Springs and Cathedral City. Reach her at ani.gasparyan@desertsun.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Desert Hot Springs OKs hotels, warehouse, logistics off Interstate 10