Commission discusses vehicle idling limits as new warehouse, drive-thrus raise air quality concerns

The Palm Springs Sustainability Commission is investigating ways to reduce vehicle idling and its impact on air quality and public health.

The commission’s discussion on Tuesday evening coincided with the city’s Architectural Review Committee (ARC) approving the design, with minor changes, of a massive 739,000-square-foot warehouse at North Indian Canyon and 19th Street. 

Sustainability Director LP McCloy acknowledged the planned warehouse as a part of the discussion, noting, “[We want] to make sure we are monitoring and making sure that we are not seeing a lot of excessive idling of heavier duty vehicles due to those new facilities.”

In addition to monitoring major commercial projects, the commission also reviewed some of the biggest causes of vehicle idling, including drive-thrus, traffic lights, pick-up and drop-off at schools, airports, and hospitals, and people idling in their work cars during the hot summer months to take a break.

The latest discussions aren’t the first about the topic in Palm Springs. In the city’s 2016 Sustainability Plan, enacting a no-idling policy for city vehicles in 2018 and applying the ordinance to commercial vehicles by 2020 was recommended but not adopted.

So far, Palm Desert is the only city with a vehicle idling ordinance that prohibits commercial idling in residential areas for longer than 15 minutes.

While no specific ordinance is being planned for Palm Springs right now, the commission hopes to begin efforts to educate people on reducing vehicle idling and plans to monitor vehicle idling associated with planned large commercial developments.

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