Thumbs Down on Decades-Old Southern California Housing Development Proposal

"Riverside County Planning Commissioners voted 4-1 [last week] to recommend that the board of supervisors deny plans for Paradise Valley, a proposed 8,400-home development east of Coachella [in Southern California]," reports Gabriella Paluch.

The project was first proposed in 2004, but the planning commission noted numerous issues that the development company has not resolved. "The primary issue — and potentially the costliest — between [the developer] GLC and conservation groups, according to the report, is how the destruction of critical habitat would be mitigated," says Paluch.

Insufficient emergency road access, concerns about affordable housing, and a lack of details about power infrastructure for the project are other issues that the commission cited. “All but one commissioner said they believed there was no path forward to finding a solution, since the developers had been unable to solve problems over years of consultations,” writes Paluch.