Palm Springs among cities sharing strategies for environmental health during summit session

Representatives from three Coachella Valley cities, including Palm Springs, outlined their approaches to environmental health and sustainability during a panel discussion Saturday, highlighting both progress and challenges in addressing climate change impacts.

Palm Springs Sustainability Director LP McCloy, Coachella Grants Manager Jaime Arroyo, and Indio City Councilmember Oscar Ortiz presented their cities’ initiatives during a session that was part of the two-day Healthy Desert, Healthy You summit put on by the Desert Healthcare District and Foundation.

McCloy emphasized Palm Springs’ focus on heat mitigation, particularly in transportation.

“We really need to be very thoughtful about what are the impacts of heat and shade on our transportation network,” she said, describing a new “heat and shade layer” project funded by the California Transportation Commission.

Coachella recently secured a $10 million Community Resilience Centers grant, Arroyo reported. The funds will retrofit a 17,800-square-foot packing house into an emergency shelter and cooling center, equipped with upgraded HVAC systems and backup power generation.

“When the resilience center is not operating as an emergency shelter on a day-to-day basis, it will have a small business assistance and food innovator program,” Arroyo explained, highlighting the facility’s dual purpose.

Indio is promoting native planting for multiple benefits, including water conservation and wildlife habitat.

“If you plant it in the right direction, you’ll actually shade your home and reduce your energy consumption, which then reduces our emissions,” Ortiz said.

All three representatives stressed the importance of regional collaboration through organizations like the Coachella Valley Association of Governments (CVAG) and Coachella Valley Energy Committee (CVEC).

“CVAG provides a really good foundation for doing that,” McCloy noted, referring to inter-city cooperation.

However, the cities face challenges in implementing sustainability measures. Ortiz pointed to the difficulty of changing long-standing practices, saying, “We’re kind of stuck in our old ways, right? We like having grass and these ornamental things, these things that take tons of water.”

Special interests also pose obstacles, according to Ortiz.

“You start getting some signals sometimes that, hey, there’s something wrong here, that it’s not mathematical, it’s not for our community,” he said.

The panelists encouraged community involvement through various channels. McCloy invited residents to join Palm Springs’ Sustainability Commission meetings, while Arroyo emphasized the importance of working with community-based organizations.

“It’s very important to actually work with our community-based organizations and those people that really have those grassroots elements and boots on the ground,” Arroyo said.

Ortiz advocated for hands-on engagement, stating, “Getting your hands dirty is a great way to say it because it’s not just with composting and that kind of getting dirty, but looking into these different topics that interest you.”

McCloy added that Palm Springs will soon launch a zero waste initiative to assist businesses, with a consultant coming on board to help businesses achieve zero waste goals.

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