We didn’t do it!

City staff has been receiving complaints from nearby residents about a 125-foot cell tower looming over the Landau School.

The metal lattice-work structure was installed by Sprint for the Palm Springs Unified School District to provide communications and internet capabilities to schools.

In California, cities have no authority to control buildings or land use on property owned by school districts if the building or use is for school purposes.  Plans for school properties are reviewed by the State Architect’s office.   

From sewers to traffic …

Wow!  The June 8th City Council meeting will be a blockbuster. Just for starters – opening of ballots for the Cove Improvement District.  As of Thursday night, 731 ballots out of about 1500 had been turned in to the City Clerk’s office.

Then there will be recommendations from the Traffic Commission, Engineering Department and Police Department to take measures that will double the green-light time for east-west traffic along East Palm Canyon in the downtown. To ease the flow of traffic, a study recommends the installation of five new signal controllers and elimination of left-turn arrows for east-west traffic on Allen, Monty Hall/Van Fleet and West Buddy Rogers and elimination of the left-turn arrows for north-south traffic on Cathedral Canyon Drive.

Also on tap for the upcoming Council meeting are two items related to expansion of the Cathedral City Auto Center:

• 90-day extension of a memorandum of understanding with Donald  Stewart to explore use of the northwest corner of East Palm Canyon and Perez for another auto dealership sales/service facility. Three possible franchises are being considered.
•  90-day extension of a memorandum of understanding with Palm Springs Nissan     for expansion for sale/display of cars and trucks.     

The downtown developer, Tri-Millennium Properties, is seeking a three-month extension on a memorandum of understanding to work further on a residential-retail plan for parcels of land north of East Palm Canyon Drive, west of Date Palm, north of the Wash and east of Van Fleet.    

Burgers under the trellis

A preliminary review this week of the proposed In ‘n’ Out Burger just west of Comfort Inn Suites on East Palm Canyon went through city staff’s Development Services Committee with very few changes. (It will offer outdoor seating with shade trellises.) The conditional use permit application is expected to be submitted to the city within the next month or so.   

Soccer answer this summer

Soccer players will probably learn in August whether Cathedral City will receive a $1 million grant for development of a soccer park on 17 acres of land the City recently acquired near James Workman Middle School.  An application for Prop. 40 funds was submitted to the State Parks and Recreation Department.

Environmental permits issued

Great week! The City has received two important state and federal water quality permits, an Army Corps of Engineers streambed alteration permit and a letter from the federal Fish and Wildlife Service confirming no significant impact on the flora and fauna for the Desert Cove Golf Course. In the meantime, construction has started on off-site improvements for the 300-room Sheraton Desert Cove Resort that will rely on the golf course.  Yes, permanent closure of the Date Palm to C Street extension is needed for the hotel project.

Citizen interviews

City Council interviews of applicants for the Parks and Recreation Commission, Public Arts Commission and Transportation Commission will begin at 3 p.m. June 8 on the third floor of City Hall. Interviews of applicants for the Planning Commission, Mobile Home Fair Practices Commission, Board of Appeals, Library Board and others will take place soon.  The interview sessions had to be held at different times because of time constraints.