La Quinta residents speak out about proposed multi-unit apartment complex
A nearly 300-unit apartment complex has been proposed to be built at the corner of Washinton Street and Avenue 50 in La Quinta.
Currently, the project site is vacant and is bordered by a residential community to the north, Washington Street to the west, vacant land to the east, and Avenue 50 to the south.
The name of the apartments would be Troutdale Village. It would consist of 284 units covering about 14 acres. 70 of the units would be for moderate-income households. The City has published several reports in relation to the project.
Kevin White is one of the several La Quinta residents against the project. Concerns range from traffic increasing to quality of life decreasing.
"I'm not anti-development. I'm just anti-this development. It's the wrong development for this parcel at this time," said White.
Another La Quinta resident, Angie Lafferty, said the space should either be left alone or become a park.
"If you look around you, we have a lot of native plants. We have an ecosystem that's about ready to be destroyed by development and other development," said Lafferty. "Traffic is going to be horrendous. It's already crazy. The tennis tournament was just here. And it was not fun getting around here. So I cannot imagine having to deal with that year round."
Dante Gomez's daughter will soon be starting at La Quinta Middle School Stem Academy near the site. He's worried about traffic flow with student pick-up and drop-off.
"So adding 520 cars plus to this very small area is obviously you're gonna throw gasoline on top of a fire," said Gomez.
As the city's planning manager, Cheri Flores is helping oversee the proposed development. She said that based on a traffic report, the project would add about 1600 trips per day in the area.
"The project proposes to have some, you know, moderate-income, affordable housing there, which can help us meet our regional housing needs assessment goals, which are given to us by the state," said Flores.
The project is still in its proposal phase. Residents will the chance to speak up about the project Tuesday, March 28, during a public hearing held by the city’s Planning Commission. The meeting is at 5 p.m. at City Hall.
