This week at City Hall: Planning Commission to weigh delivery hub; City Council postpones underground utility hearings

A proposed 174,891-square-foot delivery station, a pop-up dog park at Victoria Park and the cancellation of two public hearings on burying utility lines in Old Las Palmas are among the items making news as Palm Springs officials meet this week.

The Parks and Recreation Commission meets Monday, followed Tuesday by the Planning Commission and the VillageFest Board, and the City Council on Wednesday. Below are summaries of what’s on their agendas. Click the titles to review the agendas.

Planning Commission

The Planning Commission meets at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Council Chamber. Its only action item is a request from PS Canyon Development LLC for a last-mile delivery station on a 38-acre parcel at 63700 19th Ave. Commissioners are asked to certify an addendum to a previously adopted environmental impact report and approve a major development permit.

An addendum is a limited update to an earlier environmental review. The agenda does not name a tenant or describe traffic or neighborhood effects. Those details would be in the staff report and the addendum, which the city posts on its public records portal.

City Council

The City Council meets at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Council Chamber, after a 4 p.m. closed session. The agenda lists public hearings on the proposed Old Las Palmas Underground Utility Assessment Districts Nos. 1 and 2, but both items have been pulled. The agenda says the hearings will not be held and the council will take no action. It says the city attorney advised pulling them but gives no further reason.

The decision follows extensive public comment against the hearings at the council’s Oct. 14 meeting and in writing.

At the meeting, property owners asked the council to delay the hearing and ballot count, which had been set for this week. Speakers cited six-figure assessments, short notice on ballots and costs they said were still unsettled, such as bond interest rates and the cost of connecting individual homes.

Owners in District 1 cited assessments of roughly $112,000 to $140,000. Others said they had already paid to put utilities underground. The two districts together were estimated at nearly $10.1 million.

The agenda does not say whether the hearings will be rescheduled or what happens to ballots already submitted.

Also on the agenda, the council is asked to appoint Jim Vanderpool as interim city manager effective Nov. 1 and to award a $47.3 million contract to widen Ramon Road.

Parks and Recreation Commission

The commission meets at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the City Hall Large Conference Room. It is asked to review and approve a pop-up dog park at Victoria Park, in partnership with Blue Zones Project Palm Springs. The agenda gives no location within the park, size, cost or duration. The commission also will hear a presentation on committees from the city attorney and an update on upcoming special events.

VillageFest Board

The VillageFest Board meets at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Large Conference Room to review 17 vendor applications and discuss its vendor approval process.

How to participate

All four bodies allow public comment, with speaker cards for in-person testimony and email options. Speakers get three minutes at the Planning, Parks and VillageFest meetings and two minutes at the council.

Written comments go to planning@palmspringsca.gov, recinfo@palmspringsca.gov, VillageFest@palmspringsca.gov or cityclerk@palmspringsca.gov. Remote council participation requires registering with the clerk at 760-323-8204.

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