Residents react to approval of massive warehouse to be built in Desert Hot Springs

The Desert Hot Springs Planning Commissions approved the development permit for a three-million square-foot, multi-story e-commerce warehouse. City documents did not show the potential tenant.

However, many have raised concerns about the massive project. While others are eager for the job growth and development.

"I was like, great! They need to build a lot of stuff out here," said DHS resident Kevin Leslie. "Then they said 1,800 jobs is possible, I'm like, that's great!"

When complete, it will be one of the largest distributions centers in the United States. It is also set to create approximately 1,800 full-time jobs, according to city documents.

Many residents at Tuesday's planning commission meeting said they recently heard about the project and were taken aback by it.

"I only heard about this project, like a lot of people, I only heard about it this morning," said Jake, a public speaker at the meeting. "I believe that we are rushing into this and doing this way too hastily. I think there needs to be more time committed to this project. I think there needs to be a wider debate that maybe involves not just us, but the valley."

However, the City of DHS stands with how it notified the public.

"The agenda had been posted since Thursday for this project. And again, you know, we follow all noticing requirements that are required by law," said DHS deputy city manager Doria Wilms.

More than a dozen residents spoke at Tuesday's planning commission meeting, all of which disagreed with the warehouse being built in the city for a variety of reasons, including impacts to the environment, traffic, and health.

"We need to take a pause and just make sure that this is done ethically," said Jane, a public commentator at the meeting. "This is going to have long lasting implications on wildlife on traffic on noise on pollution for generations to come."

The City of DHS said it had condducted an Environmental Impact Report back in May 2020.

"This project, went through all of the appropriate environmental reviews," said Wilms. "And the city is part of the multi species habitat conservation plan. We have conservation land in our city that is specifically conserved to protect the habitats in our community."

However, some, including Commissioner Requita Grant, are asking for another EIR to be done. But other city officials said it's not necessary.

"But why have to do that again, when they do report was already done and the impacts are already there," said DHS mayor Scott Matas. "As long as they stay within those and follow that process, I don't believe that another impact study would-- it's not reuqiried by law."

The City said stringent levels for traffic analysis were conducted for the project.

"Those studies extended well into Palm Springs and all of the surrounding areas," said Wilms. "The developer for this project has indicated that they're very much willing to work with the city to abate any and all concerns that may come up."

Matas said they will keep an eye on traffic as the project moves forward. He adds that people can come to the board with concerns and questions.

"We just have to implement good government process on making sure that this traffic doesn't impact the Coachella Valley that much by making sure that we have ingress and egress processes in effect," said Matas. "Desert Hot Springs has been very pro development and open arms to these types of developments coming through and made sure that our staff was very proactive on making sure that they follow the process."

The building would take up more than 94 acres on the east side of Calle de Los Romos between 19th Avenue and 20th Avenue, north of Interstate 10.

Construction is planned to begin in June. If all things go according to plan, construction would be finished by Sept. 2023. The proposed project is expected to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2023.