Listen here:
Last night’s Twentynine Palms Planning Commission meeting had just one agenda item, but it was looming plans for yet another proposed resort that brought concerned residents to the podium.
At just 32-minutes, last night’s meeting of the Twentynine Palms Planning Commission was brief, yet densely packed. During public comments, several residents expressed concerns about a proposed resort within the Indian Cove neighborhood. Yonder/Ofland Hotels seeks to develop a commercial resort on a 151-acre parcel that would feature 130 four-person cabins, two lodges, 12,000 square feet of employee living space, a public restaurant, two pools, hot tub, and an outdoor movie theater.
The parcel, now in escrow, is currently zoned RS-E for 2.5-acre residential lots so the zoning would have to be changed, and therein lies the rub. Local business owner and Indian Cove resident Dana Longuevan noted that the neighborhood already abuts the popular Indian Cove campground (101 sites) which brings a steady stream of traffic and noise to the area.
“Besides the traffic noise this resort will create, Yonder will have an outside movie theatre streaming sound to guest-supplied speakers in the possible hundreds. In a place where I can hear a neighbor sneeze from almost a block away, this sounds like our average noise level will be raised quite significantly,” Longuevan said. “I don’t believe that building this resort in a rural-zoned neighborhood in a wildlife corridor so close to the park boundary, where we already have enough tourist traffic, is the best place. This project will set precedent and open the door to rezoning for developers across the hi desert. I think this is a good project for a commercially zoned area, not a residential one.”
The commission then discussed and approved the only agenda item, that Foothill Drive between Bullion Avenue and Split Rock Avenue be vacated (meaning it would no longer be a public-access street) to enable plans for a hotel made of steel-framed shipping containers.
The road is “passable by car, but just barely” according to Community Development Director Keith Gardner, who stated that the city’s engineer is fine with letting it go and the developer would take responsibility of it. A representative of NV5, the firm handling the permitting process, stated that they conducted a traffic study and noted a single car using the road over a one-week period.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story described the Yonder Development as east of the Indian Cove neighborhood. The development is planned to be within the Indian Cove neighborhood.
