Local conservationists celebrate the largest land acquisition in Coachella Valley s history kesq.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kesq.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Palm Springs City Council on Thursday reviewed two recent hot-button approvals from the city s planning commission, and allowed the two projects a cannabis facility expansion and a housing development in endangered beetle territory to move forward.
At councilmember request, the council reviewed the planning commission s approval of the expansion of the Kings Garden cannabis cultivation facility from 37,787 square feet to 212,027 square feet, as well as the approval of an 80-unit single-family housing project planned for the southwest corner of East Palm Canyon Drive and Matthew Drive.
Both projects will move forward, with some additional conditions placed on the Kings Garden project.
Palm Springs sells land from Grit settlement to Coachella Valley Conservation Commission
The city of Palm Springs is selling a 42.3-acre property acquired in the city s settlement agreement with Grit Development to the Coachella Valley Conservation Commission, which plans to protect the land as a nature preserve in perpetuity.
The Palm Springs City Council approved a purchase and sale agreement between the city and the conservation commission on Thursday. The conservation commission will pay $460,000 for the property, which is located at 2801-2899 Palm Hills Drive.
The site occupies a portion of the Palm Hills area, home to the popular Goat Trails hike. An adjacent roughly 900 acres are still privately owned by the Palm Hills Land Corporation. The Oswit Land Trust recently announced that it is working to purchase this property to protect it from development in perpetuity.
Every day, hikers head up the dirt road leading up from behind the Vons in Palm Springs, trekking up the popular Goat Trails hike.
But many hikers might not realize that the area is currently privately owned, and is not protected from future development. People have been hiking and mountain biking up there for so many years that assumption was it was protected land. Many people who live in the community now and hike in that area didn t live here when it was going to be developed, so they don t remember that, said Jane Garrison, president of the Oswit Land Trust.