City Voters Send Mixed Message on Growth

Palm Springs voters appear to be sharply split over their city’s future growth, rejecting a ballot measure that would have limited development along the base of the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa mountains while also blocking a council-approved golf resort in the foothills.

The split decision, as well as the negative campaigning that preceded election day, indicate just how divisive the issue of growth has become in Palm Springs.

“It was certainly an important election for the future of the city,” Councilman Chris Mills said. “And there were definitely two sides to this. I [hope] that we can start a little bit of the healing process.”

On Tuesday, 43% of the city’s 25,709 registered voters turned out. Nearly 55% rejected Measure B, or the Mountain Preservation Initiative, which would have limited development on nearly 56 square miles at the base of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountains to one home per 40 acres. Nearly 56% also rejected Measure C, a vote that killed a council-approved golf resort and homes.

City leaders rejoiced over the defeat of Measure B, saying its passage would have sent an antibusiness message and could have made the city liable for millions of dollars in legal awards to property owners who would have been unable to develop their land.

“It would have stifled development throughout the entire city,” Mills said.

Measure B supporter Frank Tysen, a former planning commissioner who owns a local bed and breakfast, said the measure failed because of confusion over the ballot and deceptive campaigning.

He said Measure B supporters were working to draft a new ballot initiative.

“It’s just beginning,” he said. “People have lost their faith in the council.”

Council members, however, said they hoped residents would work with them on issues before putting initiatives on the ballot.

“Land-planning, or government by initiative, is a very unfortunate way to do business and only harmful to the city,” Mills said.

An example of that was Measure C, he said, because the city needs a golf resort to compete with nearby tourist cities such as Indian Wells.

“Anybody who has an inkling of what Palm Springs is about knows the city needs a destination resort hotel,” he said. “We’re losing business and have been for years.”

But Measure C opponents said the Palm Hills proposal -- which would have allowed for a resort, golf course and more than 100 homes in the foothills of the Santa Rosa mountains -- was inappropriate.

“It’s building in our mountains. It takes away so much from our natural resources,” said Councilwoman Ginny Foat, the lone council opponent to the project. “It was just too massive. It was the most massive project ever proposed in any of the hills anywhere in the Coachella Valley.”

A spokesman for Palm Hills Land Corp. declined to comment Wednesday on the vote result.

Foat said that despite the apparent mixed message of the ballot initiatives, one thing is clear: The council must be more responsive to residents’ concerns.

“The city really needs to look at how we’re developing and it needs to be smart,” she said. “This was kind of a sleepy little hollow [14] years ago when I first came here. There was not as much citizen involvement ... we as a council need to take heed of that. It has got to be a joint venture.”