Planning Commission pulls Bel Air Greens housing plan from agenda after tribe acquires half the site

Palm Springs city staff pulled a proposal to allow housing on the closed Tommy Jacobs Bel Air Greens golf course from Tuesday’s Planning Commission agenda. The move came after staff learned the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians had acquired about half the property.

The acquisition returns that portion to tribal trust status. Planning Director Christopher Hadwin said that leaves the project in “a weird hybrid scenario,” with half subject to the city’s approval process and half not.

Until now, the whole site — at 1001 South El Cielo Rd. — was held in federal trust for allottees of the tribe. Under the city’s land use agreement with the tribe, allotted land like that goes through the city’s normal review, with an added right to appeal city decisions to the Tribal Council.

Tribal trust land once went through a nonbinding review by the City Council. However, the tribe withdrew from the agreement for trust properties earlier this year, and it can now develop that land without going through any city process, Hadwin said.

Hadwin said staff learned of the acquisition this week and that they need time to coordinate with the tribe, understand its thinking as the owner of half the property, and work out legally how the project could move forward.

“We don’t know how long those conversations will take or what that looks like in terms of coming back to us,” he said.

The item has been postponed to a date uncertain. If it returns, it will be fully agendized again, and a new public hearing will be held on the portion subject to city approval, Hadwin said.

The commission had been scheduled to consider a General Plan Amendment that would redesignate roughly 35 acres from open space to Very Low Density Residential, allowing 2.1 to 4 dwelling units per acre. The site has sat idle since the golf course closed in 2014.

The request would have been the first to move through the city’s Golf Course Conversion Ordinance, which the City Council adopted in 2019 to regulate development on shuttered courses while preserving open space.

Staff had recommended that the amendment take effect only after a more detailed development plan was approved. The applicant, Tommy Jacobs Bel Air Greens LP, had not submitted a tract map, specific plan or development permit showing how homes would meet the ordinance’s open-space and buffer requirements.

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