2.85M-square-foot tribal warehouse plan heading to City Council for review

A proposal to build a 2.85-million-square-foot industrial warehouse complex on tribal land in north Palm Springs will go before the City Council on Dec. 10, where officials will review the project’s anticipated impacts even though they do not have authority to approve or deny it.

The development, known as the Desert Mountain View Business Park, is planned on 217 acres of Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians trust land west of Tipton Road, south of Interstate 10 and north of Highway 111.

The project would consist of four large warehouse and logistics buildings ranging from 248,000 to more than 1.1 million square feet, along with truck bays, employee parking, internal roadways and utility systems.

The Agua Caliente tribe is the landowner and lead agency, while Shopoff Realty Investments, operating as Desert Mountain View, LLC, is the developer under a long-term ground lease. The tribe has completed its own Tribal Environmental Impact Statement, which found significant and unavoidable air-quality impacts typical of large-scale warehouse developments.

Because the property sits on tribal trust land, the city cannot regulate land use or impose conditions. Under a 1998 agreement with the tribe, the city’s role is limited to preparing a “conformity report” analyzing the project’s effects on infrastructure, public safety, traffic and fiscal conditions. The report also recommends a list of nonbinding conditions, including fire-safety measures, stormwater requirements and payment of development impact fees.

If built, the complex would join a growing cluster of large warehouse projects in the city’s northern gateway area. These include a pair of warehouse buildings totaling 2 million square feet on a 96-acre site at North Indian Canyon Drive and 18th Street, as well as a 730,000-square-foot warehouse on 38 acres near Indian Canyon Drive and 19th Avenue.

City staff recommend submitting the conformity report to the tribe and waiving a joint meeting between the City Council and Tribal Council, which the 1998 agreement typically requires. The council is expected to discuss the analysis and take action at its Dec. 10 meeting.

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