Sierra Club, SAFER want judge to order more review of project’s impact
Two environmental groups have gone to court to challenge the city of Desert Hot Springs’ approval of a large development near Interstate 10 that would include hotels, retail shops and a 1 million-square-foot warehouse and distribution center.
The Sierra Club and Supporters Alliance of Environmental Responsibility say Desert Hot Springs violated the California Environmental Quality Act, which requires cities to provide information on a project’s possible environmental impacts and minimize them.
In separate court actions, the groups have each petitioned for a “writ of mandate,” a way of asking a judge to undo the city’s approvals for the plan. Both groups argue the city should have better addressed how the new project could negatively affect the environment, citing issues like air quality, greenhouse gas emissions and traffic.
Interim City Manager Doria Wilms said she could not comment because of the active litigation. It’s unclear when a judge will rule on the cases, which were filed in January.
Councilmembers approved the Desert Gateway Specific Plan, located on the northwest corner of 20th Avenue and Calle de los Romos, in December. It proposes two hotels with 150 rooms between them, a commercial retail space up to 42,000 square feet, and a logistics, warehouse and light industrial space up to 1,060,000 square feet. No developer has been publicly announced.
But this wasn’t always the city’s vision for the 65-acre parcel.
In November 2017, the council approved a different plan for the site that never materialized called the Desert Harvest Specific Plan. It called for a 1.5 million-square-foot cannabis cultivation facility and up to 45,000 square feet of retail commercial space.
The city had approved a “mitigated negative declaration,” or MND, for this previous plan, which is prepared when a project may have significant environmental impacts that can be addressed through amendments. Five years later, they approved an addendum to it when OKing the new Desert Gateway Specific Plan.
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Both environmental groups that are suing say the new plans for the site are too different for an addendum to adequately address its environmental impacts. The Sierra Club argues the city should have prepared an environmental impact report, or EIR, which shows a project’s possible impacts and how to address them. SAFER argues the city should have prepared either an EIR or a new MND.
“The city’s approval of the project glossed over the severe environmental impacts associated with logistics centers and warehouses throughout Riverside County,” SAFER says in its petition.
Adam Frankel, an attorney representing SAFER, said in the council’s December meeting that the Desert Gateway Specific Plan could increase the severity of the project’s previously identified environmental impacts. Frankel did not respond to The Desert Sun’s request for comment on SAFER’s court petition.
“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 in December. “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.”
The Sierra Club states in its petition that the MND was for a different use — a cannabis growing and retail facility. Joan Taylor, a member of the Sierra Club, said the group is trying to ensure there’s a full review of the project’s impacts, which would include issues with energy use, air quality and transportation now that it includes a distribution center, which would mean trucks coming and going.
“I think we’re hoping that we’ll resolve it similarly to the way we resolved the Viento logistics projects,” Taylor said, referring to the nearby 105-foot-tall, 3.4 million-square-foot Amazon warehouse that was dubbed “Project Viento.”
The Sierra Club and Oswit Land Trust had appealed the Planning Commission’s approval of the massive project. They later entered a settlement agreement, which included developer obligations to address environmental concerns. Taylor said the group would seek similar terms, such as measures to address regional trucking impacts and reduce energy use.
Ani Gasparyan covers the western Coachella Valley cities of Desert Hot Springs and Cathedral City. Reach her at ani.gasparyan@desertsun.com.
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