A small, but growing unincorporated community in Riverside County, California is being threatened by annexation by a neighboring city in order for a developer to get lower cost permits and quicker approvals to build hotels and other businesses along the Interstate 10 corridor.
Thousand Palms is a small community that sits in a curve of Interstate 10 just east of Cathedral City and just north east of the cities of Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert. It has about 7,000 people and has been around since the 1870's. I started living there in 1980 when my dad became the postmaster. At that time there existed a small rural subdivision, and a trailer park (mobile home estates) with some small business, a cement plant, and a fire station, which had only one paid firefighter/engineer provided by the county, that I started volunteering at in 1987 (hence the user ID). My parents built a geodesic dome there at the last property before you entered the desert of the Coachella Valley.
The community developed some with the building of a McDonalds at the freeway off ramp leading to 1,000 Palms on the east and Cathedral City/Rancho Mirage to the west. After McDonalds took the first step, the area grew more with more fast food areas, light industrial, a truck stop, new school, and new houses coming to the community.
About 1990 my Dad retired from the Post Office and got interested in the community. He grew concerned with 1,000 Palms being swallowed up by the bigger, incorporated cities surrounding it. At the time most of the cities were stretched in a continuous band along the mountains on the south of the valley, separated by a band of wind blown sand dunes that make up the middle of the valley. He started working with the Riverside County Supervisor for the area, a forward looking woman named Corky Larson. Together Dad, along with a group of like minded citizens, created an advisory council that was unique to Riverside County, based on a township model (as I understand it at the time). Basically, the community would still be unincorporated, but have greater say by having the County Supervisors discuss concerns/issues with the council before doing something. I believe (since I was not super involved) this council help guide the development of the community, pushed to create a new school, community center and park, and may have talked about future city limits for 1,000 Palms.
My Dad passed away in 1996 and for his efforts got his name placed in a new justice center in a nearby city that was named for Corky Larson (personally I feel they should have named the park for him as well, but I am biased). I think the council continued on, but as many things that are volunteer based, those who have the fire in the belly age out, pass on, or get involved in other things and little to no new blood comes in to replace them.
Flash forward to today and most of the cities to the south have bought up all the land (1/2 mile on each side) of the roads that lead from the mountains through the desert to I-10 including a city that bought the road leading through another unincorporated community, annexing just the property on either side of the road. Cathedral City has one existing freeway access and annexed some property on the north side of the freeway along that road. But there is little infrastructure existing except for the road.
A developer has property that borders the existing businesses along the freeway in 1,000 Palms. He wants to develop it but doesn't want to work with Riverside County because it would be quicker, convenient, and like less costly to go through the city. As many of you know, cities tend to be more willing to fast track projects, cut price or give permits for free with the promise of future tax income, and other wise give the developers what they want at the expense of everyone else in the city.
Riverside County, like much of California, has a state legislated agency that approves changes in physical borders of cities and county property, called a Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO). It only has accountability to the State and can allow or refuse such things as property annexation, unincorporated areas becoming cities, etc. And it can set the tasks that the cities/communities must complete to get what it wants.
So, the developer wants to develop the property (which has nothing on it now), he goes to the county and doesn't want to do the paperwork so he goes to the nearest city and gets the council and planning commission for the city to propose annexation of the area. LAFCO tells the city that it doesn't like "islands of land" that the Riverside County has to provide services for (fire, sheriff, etc.) so it tells the City and developer that the City has to annex ALL of 1,000 Palms.
The City Council admits that if annexed, the taxes for 1,000 Palms will increase by 3%, which may not seem as much except that many who live there are seniors on limited income and working class/lower working class that some have home businesses. These taxes include utility, hotel, phone, electric, trash pickup, cable, gas, etc. All these taxes will go to provide services such as police and fire. The problem is is that Cathedral City has had many scandals with their police department and the City has been close to (or may have) declared bankruptcy at least once in recent years. There are also concerns that the City may rezone 1,000 Palms in a way that will negativity affect the existing residents.
There is a committee from 1,000 Palms that has been fighting this, including some people that worked with my Dad back when he started the Community Council. But they are running out of options especially when LAFCO seems to be working against them and for Cathedral City. This is shown by having meetings in locations that are up to an hour away and altering their rules to the advantage of Cathedral City.
Cathedral City has not submitted the final application to request from LAFCO approval for annexing 1,000 Palms. The committee expects LAFCO to approve it. Once that happens the committee is planning to force an election on the annexation (that will have to be paid by Cathedral City). But here is where LAFCO is fighting against 1,000 Palms.
The law that LAFCO operates states that people or groups contesting an annexation need to get signatures of 25% of registered voters or 25% of the people who own land in 1,000 Palms that are affected by the annexation to force an election. But if they can get 50% of the voters or 50% of the landowners to sign a petition to stop the annexation, it will be stopped.
That same law states that those protesting the annexation can have as long as 60 DAYS to get the signatures. LAFCO has arbitrarily shortened this time to 3 WEEKS without giving a reason. Plus, they have to wait until the issue of annexation is placed on the LAFCO agenda before 1,000 Palms can ask for an extension or even get the petition signing to stop the annexation started.
Do any of my fellow DKos'ers have ideas that may help prevent this annexation from happening. Or should the 1,000 Palms committee accept the inevitable and talk with Cathedral City to hope to get some stipulations in the final annexation, such as all zoning stays the same as is forever.
Any and all comments are helpful. I am no longer living there but can pass along information and comments. I am posting this because I think it is just another greedy developer wanting to grab all they can and screw two communities in the process.