Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. It's six o'clock and we need to begin. Okay. Can we have a roll call, please? Commissioner Lombardo, present. Commissioner Parker, present. Commissioner Row, present. Vice Chair Wagstaff present. Chairman Indo present. All right. Will everyone stand for the pledge of allegiance, please? Place your hand on your heart and repeat after me. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. All right. I assume everyone has had a chance to review the agenda. We need a a motion to approve the agenda and a second. I motion to approve the agenda. All right. Second. All right. Can we have a vote? Okay. All right. Motion passes unanimously. All right. Uh, planning commission adjourn regular meeting minutes from April 14th, 2025. Do we have a motion to approve the minutes?

I motion to approve. I second. All right, we have a vote. Motion passes unanimously. All right. It's time for public comments. At this time, pursuant to the Brown Act, any person may comment on matters of general interest within the subject matter jurisdiction of the planning commission, but not listed on the agenda. Um, we have uh speakers have three minutes. Please uh provide your name and your city of residence. Do we have any any public comments? No. No public comments. Okay. And we will move into our first public hearing. Resolution of the planning commission of the city of Desert Hot Springs, California, approving following a mitigated negative declaration development permit number 24 25-4 and conditional use permit number 25-3. Okay. Um 20 25-3 for the development of an affordable housing project and an early childhood education center for Park Lane Homes. May we have the staff report, please? Um good evening uh Mr. Chair and commissioners. By way of introduction, this is the third affordable housing development uh to come before the city in the sixth cycle of the regional housing needs allocation. Uh the first project was the 220 affordable units at Greenday Village that was approved by the commission in 2023 and recently uh you approved the 64 units at the

crossings of Camino Companero. Um together with the 167 units proposed for Parklane Homes, the city would have a total of 451 affordable units in the pipeline. Uh there's still remaining 653 affordable housing units assigned to the city in the arena six cycle. Uh but we still have four to five more years uh to get those done. Uh so tonight, Ava Laura, our assistant planner, will present the case uh for you. Good evening everyone. My name is Aalada, assistant planner. I will be presenting the following item. The project before you tonight, Parklane Homes, includes three applications. A development permit, conditional use permit, and the approval of the mitigated negative declaration. Parkling Home is an 100% affordable multi-dwelling development proposing to develop 167 affordable units and an early childhood education center. The proposed project is located north of Park Lane and east of Palm Drive on a 7.54 acre lot. The lot is zone mixeduse corridor and the use is permitted by right. North of the project site you will find a shopping center. To the west

you will find the public library and the county building. Just to the south you will find Mission Springs Park and to the east you will find Desert Springs Middle School. The development will consist of six residential units that will feature a mix of one, two, and three stories. It will also include a community center swimming pool and laundry facility. The project also proposes an early education center and playground. Additional proposed amenities include seating garden areas and community plazas. The cluster residential buildings and contain mid-century elements including an angled roof on the building's front facade with large overhangs, architectural popout elements, and stuckle finishes. The residential units will feature a mix of one, two, and threebedroom apartments designed to cater to diverse household needs. The project site. The project site also proposes a singlestory 11,000 ft² early childhood education center that will feature five classrooms, lactation room, laundry facility, and playground areas. The architecture for the early childhood education center will also play with the mid-century elements, including an angled roof with large overhangs, architectural pop outs, and stuckle finishes, making it very cohesive to the rest of the development. Parkling homes will include landscaping at building entrances along building frontages and parking areas as shown in the landscape plan. The landscape inspiration includes blue, elf aloe, desert spoons, state palms, and desert willows to name a few. The final landscape plan will need to be submitted to Mission Springs Water

District for final review and approval. Parkling Home will also include a metal picketed fencing around the perimeter of the development. The development, however, will not be a gated community. Per state density requirements, the development is required to include 232.5 parking spaces. The applicant will provide 233. 167 of those spaces will be covered spaces with solar panels and the remainder of the 66 spaces will be uncovered as shown on the site plan before you. So, a traffic signal is currently in design. It is proposed to be installed at the intersection of Palm Drive and Park Lane. The signal is expected to be operational before occupancy of Parklane homes. A rideway has been dedicated by Palm Springs Unified School District to enable road improvements by Vision Springs Water District. An additional rightway would be required for Park Lane and Bervino Drive. As part of the entitlement of the project partling homes, a 167 unit affordable housing development that will be de restricted. A request for a concession is allowed under the state density bonus law. The project park homes will be 100% affordable with the mix of 30 to 60% of AMI extremely low to low income. Four concessions are permissible if 100% of the units are designated as affordable. Parklane Homes has designated 100% of the units as low-income and thus half requested for concessions as follows. Unit size. A request for a concession that allows the one-bedroom units to be 565 ft in instead of the 700 ft² and allows the two-bedroom units to be 790 ft² instead of the 900 ft²

minimum per the minimum city requirements. Private space reduction, a request for a reduction of the private space from 100 of balcony 100% of balconies to only 50%. Open space reduction, a request to reduce the open space area from 20% to 17%. And the Hback unit location, a request for roof mounted HVAC units in lie of groundmounted units. The multifamily development will be constructed in three phases. The first phase, construction of three apartment buildings, buildings A, B, and E, community room, laundry facilities, and 116 parking spaces. Phase three, construction of two apartment buildings, building C and E, and 107 parking spaces. construction of the phase three of the early that will be the early childhood education center along with the required 10 parking spaces and playground in accordance with SQA guideline section 15063 an additional an initial study was prepared to determine if the project as proposed may have a significant effect upon the environment based upon the findings a draft mitigated negative declaration or M &D was prepared in support The draft mitigated negative declaration was circulated for a 20-day comment period which initiated on March 28th, 2025 and ended on April 17, 2025. A resolution of the planning commission of the city of Desert Hot Springs, California to approve the following. Mitigated negative declaration 25-1, development permit number 25-4, conditional use permit number 25-3. Since the posting of the agenda, the city has received common letters which have been distributed to the commissioners and hard and hard copies

have also been provided. That concludes my presentation. The applicant is an assistant. staff is available to answer any questions. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Um, now is our opportunity to ask staff questions, but I wanted to start with one question or a couple of questions myself. There based on the couple of pieces of correspondence we've received, there's concern about traffic on Palm Drive and Park because of this potentially because of this project. Um, Travis Clark, can you and and uh Mr. Porus talk in greater detail about the situation with the traffic signal there, but also and and a timeline, what how will the tra traffic signal uh move time-wise, but also about any planned road improvements around there that would including the possibility of another access to it. Sure. I I'll start. Mr. Porest can correct me if needed. Um so the traffic signal at Park Lane and Palm Drive is currently in design. Uh as mentioned, uh it will be a four-way traffic signal with pedestrian crossing um and greatly improve the exit out of grocery outlet as it currently stands. Uh the signal is within the capital improvement plan as mentioned. Uh it is inspected to be installed and functional by the time the Parklanes home is accepting residence which will likely be in three years. So you have two years before construction starts in approximately a year of construction. Um the alternative connection to Two Bunch Palms via Parklane and Verbina Drive is within the city's plans. Uh more north south alternatives to Palm Drive are needed uh throughout the city on the east side of Palm Drive as well as the west. Um, as each property owner develops, they are

required to provide frontage improvements upon development. Uh, one challenge for Parklane has been that the rightway for the road improvements do not exist for the project site. Uh, the city is working with the school district to dedicate the rightway along their frontage a park lane, thereby allowing Mission Springs Water District to make their frontage improvements at the future critical service services center. It's my understanding we already have those dedication um plats in the city for review. Uh beyond that, the rightaway would be needed from the residential parcel in the corner of Park Lane and Verbena. Uh the rightway would be dedicated and frontage improvements made at the time of development that would allow the connection back up to two bunch pumps. All right. Do you have anything to add? Sure, Mr. Chair. And I can just add a little more just as this project and any project uh moves forward that's new. We always look at traffic, right? We have a we follow this Riverside County traffic standard for evaluating traffic. What that means is they do a vehicle um miles travel analysis which is the minimum required for SQA but we also do a level of service requirement which analyzes the capacity of our system. So if you have a roadway intersections, what capacity is it serving now? what capacity would it serve in the future and so forth. Based on that traffic impact study, we we we obviously the the developer has to mitigate all of the required um impacts it's going to have. In this case, the traffic impact study does require a traffic signal which will be mitigated with the construction of the traffic signal. It also requires um improvements to Camino Companero which is like a left turn pocket extending the timing and so forth. Um and it also evaluates access. The project does have full access through Palm Drive. Um, obvious obviously a second access would um be desired, but there are challenges with that. One is it's not something that is required as a mitigation. It'll be a completely different property. It

will require acquire right away. Um, and it'll be going through private property as it currently stands. Um the city council has uh uh analyzed and discussed different connectors that are desired or needed in the future into Palm Drive as a method of relieving some congestion. Um this being one, others being on Campaniro to West Little Morango 20th. We're we're currently evaluating the entire city, not just this this one itself. And it was part of the strategic p strategic plan discussion that was discussed by city council. So moving forward in general there are other plans and other projects to relieve some of the traffic but as far as this project itself um our standard conditions still stand that along the frontage of the property they will be required to do all the improvements and they will be required to have that traffic signal up which the city's already moving forward with which actually satisfies all the conditions of the project itself. On the second note there is a traffic synchronization project that is currently underway that will also help relieve traffic in general just on Palm Drive. Right now, our traffic signals do not communicate with one another. One one traffic signal might be red, one traffic signal might be might be green. So, it it completely backs up traffic. With this traffic sign installation and the traffic synchronization project, it'll help alleviate during the afternoon peak hours, which is a lot of the north traffic, and then the morning peak hours, which are the south traffic. So, that's another project that we're currently already working on, which will help more of the immediate need that that is needed on Palm Drive as well. Thank you. All right. And Travis, can you just say a couple words about um the importance of this project from the city perspective as far as the um numbers, arena numbers? Um yeah, sure. As I mentioned in the opening, this would add 167 uh affordable units uh to our to our pipeline. Uh still not quite there, but puts us much further along. And I think more importantly, it shows the state

we're making a good faith effort uh to improve affordable housing opportunities uh within the city. What's also very intriguing about uh this particular development is the early childhood care center that's also being proposed. That is another need within the city that we have for child care uh for working parents and so that is a really nice feature of the project. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Okay, questions from commissioners. Anyone have questions? No questions. Okay. Uh let's open public hearing and take uh testimony from people in favor of the project. We have um a few blue cards up here. I'm sorry. We have to take testim testimony from the applicant first. Yeah, that's right. I'm sorry. Is the applicant here? Yeah. All righty. Uh, good evening, commissioners. Uh, my name is Sergio Rosas and I'm with the Bold Communities. Uh before I start, I want to thank you for taking the time to considering this project. Uh we're really excited about this project and um and bringing Parkling Homes to the Desert Hot Springs community. And I hope you're equally excited uh about the prospect about this project. Before we jump into the project related uh information, I just want to introduce the board communities. Uh we are a nationalized uh recognized nonprofit that specializes in the development, management and ownership and resident service provision of

affordable housing. We've been doing this close to six decades now. Originally in the city of Los Angeles and since then have expanded throughout California. We have six properties in the Bay Area and another six properties here in Riverside County. Again, we're really excited to be here in Desert Hot Springs. And I'll turn it over uh to Kristen Costgrove who is uh with KFA Architects who will be talk walking you through some additional elements of the project. Good evening. As Sergio mentioned, I'm Kristen Cosgrove, a senior associate from KFA Architecture. KFA is celebrating our 50th anniversary this year and our firm has over 40 years of affordable housing experience, an extensive portfolio of multifamily housing and a desire to design buildings that positively impact communities. As previously mentioned, Parklane Homes is a new construction mixeduse project with 167 units and an early childhood education center. The project is anticipated to be constructed in three phases. The site is designed as a walkable community with five blocks interconnected with a network of pedestrian paths and open space. Along Park Lane is the singlestory early education childhood center and a retention basin to capture storm water but also double as an open space when while not capturing water. Within the Park Lane community are two to threetory garden style buildings arranged to connect and prior prioritize communal open space. At the heart of the community is the centralized community space with the pool, a shaded play structure, seating, and native landscaping. The community room also has a covered outdoor space

for um shaded outdoor gatherings. Smaller outdoor areas at the surrounding buildings provide visible and walkable connections to the central community space while also providing multiple planted and shaded outdoor open spaces for residents to enjoy, gather, and interact. Onsite, resident parking flanks the drive aisles to provide easy access from the car to the buildings. The parking will be covered with carports or shaded by tree canopies. Uh this is the slide showing the project's expected phasing. Phase one will contain 87 units and the community space and corresponding parking. Phase two will add an additional 80 units and corresponding parking. And then phase three is the early childhood education center with its own parking and um play playyard. The project's architectural language draws inspiration from mid-century modern architecture with clean lines, simple forms, and integration with landscape. Accentuated roof lines articulate the facade and provide shade relief. The material palette embraces earthy hues and textures drawing inspiration from the desert. The integration of native landscaping is used to enhance and activate the common areas. This is an aerial view looking northwest from the southeast corner of the site above the retention basin. It highlights the scale of the community and the layouts of the buildings arranged around communal open space. Variations in building volumes coupled with plane and material and color transitions break down the massing and contribute to the sense of residential scale. This view looks north towards buildings A and B at the center of the community along the walkway of the ECE. Here you can see the native desert landscaping and the intention of the walkable community with a glimpse into the garden style apartments

beyond. This view looks south at the central community building and pool area. The community building uses similar materials and elements as the other buildings, but differentiates itself with larger windows and a more dramatic roof line to allow for daylighting within the built building, but being mindful of solar heat gain. The large overhang extends from the community room for indoor and shaded outdoor gathering space adjacent to the pool. Thank you so much for your time. It was a pleasure presenting our vision of Parkling Homes. Uh so one last piece here that I want to add um before we end the presentation is going over the timeline. Uh as you can see the timeline um for for this project uh we hope to secure entitlements um this today and from today all the way until April 2026 we'll be applying for affordable housing financing. Specifically we're working on a um funding application along support with the city of Desert Hot Springs um known as of the affordable housing sustainable communities also known as ASIC. uh if all lines up well um and we get it awarded which awards will be um towards the end of this year in December uh eventually we'll apply to um the tax credit allocation committee and if the funding does favor us and we do our award of the funds uh potentially we have the potential of starting construction as early as February 2027. Um phase two will will follow a similar path um staggering a year from the funding the funding that we applied for phase one and yeah eventually once uh um everything lines up with well um we hope to have 167 homes by January 2030. Uh this concludes our presentations. Uh if you have any questions I'm happy to answer that and answer that and thanks again for your

time. Anyone have questions? the applicant. I do have a question. The early childhood development center, if it's not fully utilized by this particular community, would that be opened up to other residents in the city? Yeah. So, we're in the um we work with an operator that will work with the surrounding community to serve the residents of Parklane Homes and also the surrounding community. Thank you. All right. No questions. Okay. Um, let's move on to uh testimony from the public. Do we have any testimony? I have cards, but they don't say whether they're in favor or against or there's only one only one for neutral. Um, I just go through the names, I guess. Uh, Diamara Diaz, someone, please state your name and your city of residence. City of residence. I'm going to be helping her with translation. Um, her name is Diana Diaz and she's been a resident of Desert Hot Springs for 24 years. Um,

trailer. So, the past 23 years that I've lived here, the last um 15 years I've lived in a trailer park on Fifth Street. And the last three years we have been through a lot of um terrible things um from um drug dealing to crime and even um murders. Um, trailer park. So, um, we unfortunately had to leave the trailer park because they got new owners. years and since moving out, we've struggled to find an affordable place to live. Um, which is unfortunate because the city of Desert Hot Springs is one of the more affordable places to live.

Um, so I'm here on behalf of myself, my family, and the residents of Desert Hot Springs. Um, and I urge you to support this affordable housing development because it's very important. Um, the city needs more affordable housing and I ask you, the planning commission, to please be in favor of it. Thank you. That is all. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Um, Joe Moda, please state your place of residence and are you in favor, neutral, or against the project? Good afternoon, uh, commissioners. My name is Chota, resident of Desert Hot Springs. I just want to say that I'm here in support of the project. I live across from an affordable housing project, Bisa Deas. And I remember when I first bought my home and the realtor says, "Oh, you used to have a beautiful sight of the mountains, but this low income facility came in." Uh, since living across from Bris, it has been nothing but a great community. The owners or the owners of the project would invite all the kids in our in our street to participate into the programs. when in the summers they had swim lessons with lifeguards. They would invite all the community, all the kids from the community. They had after school programs. So, this project that uh Abode Homes brings is an opportunity. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of homes around Parklane homes, but there are within parks and there's a community not too far from there that can that they can create community there. Like the owners of the property across the street from where I bought purchased my home created community in in our neighborhood and made it safe for kids to be not just for the ones that live in

the property, but also for the neighboring uh two streets, three streets that were there. So, I just here in support for this project because one, it'll bring sustainable and accessible homes for folks, especially here in Desert Hot Springs. And two, it's going to create an early childhood education center that's going to be accessible not just by the residents, but everyone here in Desert Hot Springs because we all know that Desert Hot Springs is a working community. They may not work here, but they live here. And that would be an opportunity because early childhood education access is very hard to come by and I know with them Abode is very responsible and we'll get a provider that will make it accessible for all folks all residents to access that program and not just the residents but everyone here in Desert Hospital Springs that is in need of early childhood education programs. So, thank you and I urge you to please support this project so our residents can have an accessible uh uh place where they can live. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um Judith, I think this is Gludith, please state your name and city of residence. Hi. Hi everyone. My name is Judith GL and I've been living in this house for 34 years and my kids came in the community schools and everything and I was a early childhood teacher for this community for 32 years. So um I am a favor to to be to the construction of the of the complex. Honorable members and this high planning commission. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you. My name is

Judith Gl and I am here to advocate for approval of the Parkling Homes. Please do. And I will uh the project that we will provide affordable housing and early childhood education um services for our community. This has been a growing city. as a continue to grow is important and we focus sustainable grow and benefits every resident especially for our family and children. As a teacher, we did a lot of a lot of um child child care for our parents, working parents because sometimes they they can affordable to pay extra money and um with the raising costs and leaving many hardworking families are struggling to find a place and to call home. parking lanes. We will provide 167 um uh apartments and mashing affordable units so the local and families and develop can be a stable housing and they can afford second. Second, this development include early childhood education service which are important for the f for the future of all children and intervention reach show the intervention and early childhood education has long-term impact in the child on the child's success and reducing the achievement gap in education. Please please please please develop the this development will be a foundation for future future grow and that reflects the values of the inclusivity opportunity and responsibility. I ask you today to approve parkline homes not just a housing developable but a meaningful

invention of the the future of the desp. Together we can provide families with safe affordable housing, ensure our children and have the red resources to drive and create a strong more liberty community for everyone. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. All right, our next speaker is Rakita Grant. Good evening, commissioner, city staff, and residents. My name is Rakita Grant. It is my sincere hope that you support the Parklane housing development. First of all, it aligns with your housing element 6 and your arena numbers. In the last several years post pandemic, I've seen a high turnover of evictions within our city. People having to move like you heard the first speaker that had to relocate several times. It's been a very high increase with the rent. This project will open up. We can't eradicate homelessness, but we'll have the opportunity to open doors for our community such as those like the youth. A lot of people are biased with projects like this, but I've seen the youth that are couch surfing. I've seen the elderly that are just being kicked out of like their grandparents and children's homes. We need this to make sure that doors are open and we need it to be affordable. And this project, given the early childhood development, opening it up not to just their residents, but also to the community. I think this is a great step with for Desert Hot Springs to move forward. and I just really sincerely hope that you support this project and open the doors. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, our next speaker

is Susan. I think it's Kabis. C A B E S E. Kab. Okay. Good evening everyone. My name is Susan Cave and I'm 69 years old and a retired teacher from Pon Spring Unified School District since 2019. I've been resident of Desert Hot Springs since 1991. I came today to support live to rise and advocate for Parklane homes at Desert Hotring. I also encourage commissioners to approve the 167 units affordable project and the early childhood educational center. Um also I want to say that I have four childrens all graduated from university and three of them they live with me with their families in my home because cannot afford house or to pay for like to afford a house. So that's why I came in support and I ask you to beg you to please support this project because really it's going to help us. Thank you. Thank you very much. And our last speaker is Diane Powell. Good evening. I've been here before. Um, as a resident of the Sky Haven community, I'm worried that the proposed traffic signal at Park Lane won't solve the congestion on Palm Drive and will likely make things worse for those of us living nearby. I urge you to consider this issue carefully. The new traffic signal at Park Lane will release cars in waves when the light turns green,

creating a steady stream of traffic. This will make it even harder for me and my neighbors in Sky Haven to turn left onto Palm Drive, which is already nearly impossible. And it's sometimes during the day truly impossible. The report in your agenda claims the signal will handle extra traffic from Parklane homes, but I believe it will only help those new cars from Parklane homes get out onto Palm Drive while clogging Palm Drive even more. This will make it tougher for us to get out of our neighborhoods. In fact, we already struggle to safely exit our development. Turning left onto Palm Drive requires slipping into the central median, but this maneuver is dangerous because cars coming the other way are often turning left into the grocery outlet entrance. It creates confusion and potential for collisions. Sometimes the only option to exit Sky Haven is to turn right. But when we head south to Camino Aventura, hoping to make a U-turn, we're blocked by a no Uturn sign that was installed for no understandable reason. Other intersections with even lighter turning space allow U-turns. So, this restriction feels arbitrary and unnecessary. The end result is that we who live in Sky Haven are blocked in. were unable to go left and we're unable to legally go right and loop back. US commissioners should require the developer to provide another route for Parklane residents to reach schools and

shopping without adding to Palm Drives traffic. A route along Park Lane to Verbina seems like a practical solution and it's reasonable to expect the developer to handle that road work. Other cities don't hesit hesitate to make such requirements. Watching other planning commissions in other cities has taught me that this is a normal thing for a planning commission to require. Let's bring our city up to those standards so that we can start to look like these other Coachella Valley cities. If anyone suggests the city will pave this route later, I'm skeptical. We all see roads in Desert Hot Springs that were promised to be finished later and 20 years they remain narrow and incomplete. Ma'am, your three minutes are up. I only have one more. Yes, Mr. Mr. Chair, members of the commission, it's a public hearing. Um, I know I saw the city clerk did put put on the timer. Um, but it's a public hearing, so you do have a right to to finish and to be heard. Okay. Sorry. Back then, someone said someone will get to it and no one ever did. Our city looks the worst for concessions other cities would never make. Please don't let this slide. The responsible approach is to require the developer to build the alternate route. Now, thank you for considering my concerns. Right. Thank you. Do we have any other speakers? Anyone else? All right. Um, this is an opportunity for the applicant to make a rebuttal. Does the applicant have any response or comments? No. Okay.

Members of the commission, my name is Nicole Christ. I'm with Teranova Planning. We prepared the initial study um for the project and and had prepared um for the initial study the traffic report, the um although I understand the neighbors concerns, the the the traffic analysis clearly shows that the issue is existing. Park Lane will not significantly impact and will participate in the cost of the signal that's called for in the conditions and in the initial study. The um the addition of a secondary roadway access through Verbina although um desirable is not necessary for this project and is a regional issue. Um and and as um Mr. Porus and Mr. Clark addressed to you before the beginning of the public hearing is something that the city is indeed working on. It would be excessive to ask that the project tried to secure off-site street improvements such as the extension of Verbina. Thank you. All right. Um I will close the public hearing. U planning commission discussion. Anyone have anything to discuss amongst ourselves? Comments then uh we can entertain a motion wants to motion. I make a motion that we approve the application. Okay. Will you read out the uh the three parts, the uh adopt a resolution of the planning commission and so forth?

I approve or uh make a motion that we adopt a resolution to the planning commission of the city of Desert Hot Springs, California approving the following. One, mitigate negative declaration ENV25-1. Two, develop permit. Development permit number 25-4 and three. Conditional use permit number 25-3 for the development of affordable housing project and an early childhood development education center for Parklane Homes. I'll second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Can we have a vote? Motion passes unanimously. All right. Very good. Congratulations to the developer. All right. Um, we will move on to our Very good. All right, we'll move on to our next item on the agenda. Um, adopting the city of Desert Hot Springs local hazard mitigation plan into the general plan. And our speaker will be Dan Danny Porz. This Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's actually going to be Judith Dues. He's actually going to present this staff report and also presenting for city council. Good evening, chair and commissioners. Today I'm presenting the adoption of the city of Desert Hot Springs local hazard mitigation plan into the city's general plan safety elements. The local hazard mitigation plan is a

planning document that analyzes natural occurring risks to communities such as earthquakes, fires, and floods. Jurisdictions are required to have an approved LHMP in order to be eligible for pre and post- disaster mitigation funds and or receive federal disaster relief through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, also known as FEMA. The local hazard mitigation plan is reviewed yearly and formally updated through FEMA every 5 years. The local hazard mitigation plan went through a thorough review and approval process beginning with the county of Riverside's emergency management department approval on May 21st, 2024. It was then reviewed and approved by California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, Callowes on July 17th, 2024 and approved by FEMA on September 6th, 2024. The city of Desert Hot Springs officially adopted the LHMP on October 1st, 2024. As required by Assembly Bill 2140, jurisdictions must adopt the FEMA approved LHMPS into the safety element of their general plans. This adoption allows the city to be considered for part or all of its local share costs of an eligible um public assistant funding to be provided by the state through the California Disaster Assistant Act. With this are we recommend the city council to adopt um the resolution entitled a resolution of the city council to adopt the local hazard mitigation plan into the safety elements of the general plan. All right. Does anyone have any questions for the city? Any questions? Okay. Then uh we need a recommendation or a motion. I motion that we accept the plan. Recommend to city council to adopt a

resolution titled a resolution of the city council to adopt the local hazard hazards mitigation plan into the safety elements of the general plan. All right. Second. We have a second. I second. All right. Can we have a vote? Everybody vote. Not coming up. Mr. Mr. Chair, we can do a voice vote. Okay. You just take your vote. Four. I pass unanimously. Very good. So, we're at the port portion of the meeting where we take more public comments. Does anyone else have any public comments? I don't. Mr. members of the commission if I may real quick as well just for the last item uh just want to uh make sure that in the record that there was nobody here to provide public comment on that either that uh one item as well. So Okay. Yeah. Okay. Um All right. Uh chair and planning mission planning commission member reports. Anybody have a report of any kind? No. No. Okay. Uh community development director report. Uh just two short updates for you this evening. First, I wanted to provide an update on permitting activity for the year so far. Uh so far this year, this calendar year, we've issued 120 new residential building permits uh for 125 units, of

which 118 are for single family homes. Uh Lenard, the builder for Skyborn Village 3 and Rancho Discono are continuing to uh pull building permits for their developments uh at a rapid pace. Uh the market for the starter homes is particularly strong and uh that's where they're having the biggest luck selling. And the second thing I wanted to mention, I'd like to take a moment to wish Patricia Villa Gomez a happy birthday. Uh which is today. Happy birthday. She is not making me feel the least bit guilty about her being here tonight on her birthday. Anyway, I want to thank Patricia for her dedication and wish her happy birthday. And that's all my updates. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Can I ask Travis? Can I just ask you one question though about the buyers? You you said that the interest is in starter homes. Yes. Who typically is buying here now? Young families. young families, not retirees. Uh, yeah, there's some of that. There's some, you know, retirees and snowbirds, but I think the biggest demand that I've seen is young families. And where are they coming from? Uh there some of them are local to the Coachella Valley who are going from renting to owning. And then you do have a wave coming uh eastward from Riverside County or the Riverside Inland Empire area that are also moving out here. The valley is growing. there are more job opportunities and you're seeing more young families come out here to take advantage of that. Well, I heard recently that um and I think I have this correct. The median price of a house in Palm Springs is a million2 now. 1,200. That's the median price here. It must still be about 300,000 maybe 400,000. Four something. Yeah, it's ticked up. I think it's over four now. But so we're still really affordable.

Yeah. Mhm. We're really affordable. Yeah. Okay. Very good. Um All right. We're adjourned. Okay. Thank you, Jim. Have a good evening, everyone.