San Bernardino County’s $31M plans to transform Joshua Tree receives resident feedback at Tuesday’s meeting

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story stated that Third District Representative Dawn Rowe was absent during the meeting. Rowe was on Jury Duty – a fact that was stated at the beginning of the meeting. We regret the omission.

Will Joshua Tree be getting a sewer system? 

Just a few weeks ago, it seemed like a question posed at an early stage of the county’s explorations of the possible project, which has been a frequently discussed topic by local business owners and residents. It was also a topic at the latest Joshua Basin Water District board meeting, where Vice President Stacy Doolittle discussed information she found regarding $750,000 that the county had earmarked towards sewer exploration.

That number has now ballooned to $6.3 million, part of a $31 million chunk of change set aside by the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors for Third District projects. Some of those are long-requested infrastructure such as additional crosswalks, traffic and pedestrian signals, bathrooms, and trash facilities. However, the money announced for a sewer district formation, site acquisition, and environmental assessment took almost everybody by surprise.

The item was #131 in the Consent Calendar at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, which means it didn’t have separate discussion or a specific public comment period before it was passed alongside the other 135 items. 

Public Comments

Residents and business owners from Joshua Tree did show up remotely to share their sticker shock and confusion on why such a large sum of money for Third District projects was dropped into the agenda without much warning. 

Cliffhanger Guides business owner Seth Zaharias was first to speak on the topic during the public comment period at the meeting. He’s also on the board of the recently formed Joshua Tree Association of Business and Culture.

Seth: “When I reached out to numerous downtown Joshua Tree business owners, which I’m very connected in being a business owner here for 25 years, nobody was aware of the proposed $31 million of infrastructure improvements in Joshua Tree.  And a lot of it makes a lot of sense to me as far as stoplights and public parking and waste disposal and bathrooms and all those sorts of things.

“In regards to the proposed sewer project, there’s nobody in the downtown existing business community who is advocating for that. And to me, this really sounds like an opportunity for box retail to really set a footprint in downtown Joshua Tree. And Joshua Tree is primarily locally owned and operated, and I’m really proud of that. And we’re a national park town, which is very, very different than most areas in the county.

“Frankly, we’re a cash cow for tourism for the economy and tax revenue and TOT (transit occupancy tax) and all that stuff. And I do not want our town to end up looking like every other town in America… as just one giant strip mall.”

Sewer opens doors to “formula retail”

Stacey Doolittle is on the board for the Morongo Basin Conservation Association (MBCA), as well as the Joshua Basin Water District (JBWD). She spoke about developments like Lovemore Ranch that has been approved for construction in Joshua Tree and what other developments a sewer system could bring to the small, unincorporated village.

Stacy Doolittle: “I spoke to you all in spring 2024, and I said that it’s on you to preserve the look and feel of our rural community and to not ruin Joshua Tree with developments like Lovemore. And now, a year and a half later, you all are installing sewers to support developments such as Lovemore and other inappropriate development projects. 

“There is no support for low-income housing. This issue is not being considered cumulatively. The cumulative impacts to our community and the cumulative impact for installing that sewer covering so much blank area, that’s obviously going to be filled with formula retail. We need a formula retail overlay ban so we can keep Joshua Tree looking like and feeling like a rural area and something different to go to for all of the 3 million visitors that come here from around the world.”

Doolittle says she previously reached out to Representative Jay Obernolte’s office for clarification on the sewer exploration, to which she said she was shut down. 

“We know what the results can be.”

Forty-year resident David Fick used the public comment period at the end of the meeting to bring discussion back around to the proposed sewer system. David is also on the boards for the MBCA and JBWD and has a long history of challenging and shaping developments in the Morongo Basin.

David Fick: “The concern we have is the sewer authority by the county. Our county is probably the most opaque it’s ever been in the last 40 years that I’ve been out here. We do not have a Chamber of Commerce, we do not have a MAC (municipal advisory council), and we don’t have an open and communicative county representative out here. The sewer authority will be fought by the Joshua Tree community every step of the way. We know what the results can be. We do not want the results.”

Third District Representative Dawn Rowe was absent from yesterday’s board meeting due to jury duty. Z107.7 has reached out to the county for comments and clarification on the nascent Joshua Tree sewer plans and will continue to report on this as more information becomes available.