Cathedral City To Study Annexation Of Thousand Palms

Thousand Palms is one of the largest unincorporated communities in the Coachella Valley.

For years the community has wanted to become its own city. The Riverside County Local Agency Formation Commission has made it very clear that isn’t going to happen.

Cathedral City to the south is working out a proposal to study the annexation of 4,100 acres of unoccupied land into the city.

After some talks however, Thousand Palms residents are more open to the idea of the entire community being annexed in. However, many are not.

“I think we should stay our own township and not annex with Cathedral City,” said Denise Larsen, a Thousand Palms resident.

Many are concerned with what kind of taxes will come along with the annexation. If they don’t decide though, many residents are concerned Riverside County will start pulling services out of Thousand Palms.

On December 8th, the Cathedral City council is expected to approve a plan to include all of Thousand Palms into an annexation proposal that will be presented to the Riverside County Local Agency Formation Commission to study the Sphere of Influence.

Cathedral City says it wants to annex Thousand Palms in order to diversify the city’s tax income.

“Right now we don’t get a lot of taxes from our residential properties so we’re looking to balance that with industrial taxes,” said Cathedral City Community Development Director Andy Hall. “This area also offers industrial job creation.”

After the Sphere of Influence decisioin, annexation could only be a few months away. If Thousand Palms residents protest The Riverside County Local Agency Formation Commission’s decision, they’ll need 25%-50% of registered voters in order to do so. If the protest is greater than 50% of the registered voters, then the decision is denied an no election is needed.