Palm Desert could get 400 new apartments. Neighbors call it a 'nightmare'

A Tuesday night planning meeting in Palm Desert turned into a showdown between a developer pitching a 400-unit apartment complex he says will help the city to meet its affordable housing goals and neighbors who say the development will clog streets and threaten safety.

Palm Desert Planning Commission on Feb. 20 decided to postpone a vote on The Sands, a complex of one-, two- and three-story buildings slated for an 18-acre property on Hovley Lane.

The developer, Bay Area-based New Cities Investment Partners, intends to rent 20 percent of units in the complex at below-market rates.

"I've tried to buy this property for 20 years, because I think it's the perfect property for this particular use," Lee Newell, New Cities CEO, said at the meeting. "Palm Desert, I believe, is in need of some affordable housing, as are many of the other cities in California. It's somewhat of an epidemic right now."

Plans to develop the Sands property go back to a 1989 development agreement that approved up to 612 apartments on a 55-acre site. The Canterra project has 306 apartments, leaving another 306 units available to be built at the Sands.

However, New Cities has proposed a "density bonus," permission to build more apartments than otherwise permitted because of the project's rent-restricted units.

That increase in density has perturbed some neighbors, who say they did not anticipate that the future development would be as large and tall as the Sands.

Newell presented last-minute design changes aimed at reassuring Sands neighbors who have protested the complex since an earlier public hearing in June.

Keep reading: Amid outcry from Palm Desert neighbors, commissioners delay action on 412-unit apartment complex

Under the compromise, the size of the complex would shrink from 412 to 400 apartments. New Cities also would reduce the number of three-story buildings on the property and move a line of 50 garages that would have bordered Venezia, a gated community to the west of the development site.

The plan for the Sands presented this week includes:

Ten two-story buildings, five three-story buildings and a 9,000-square-foot clubhouse with fitness and recreation facilities

Two outdoor swimming pools

A new traffic signal at Hovley Lane and Jasmine Court

The Sands site, located south of Hovley Lane and east of Portola Drive, is hemmed in by existing developments on three sides.

On its west side, the land borders James Earl Carter Elementary School and Venezia. To the east lies Canterra Apartments. And to the south is Portola Country Club, a 55+ mobile home park built around a golf course.

New Cities' design tweaks did not win over residents speaking at the evening's public hearing.

Rocio Martinez, a Venezia resident, said she chose to raise her children in Palm Desert because of its quality of life. Now, she worries that someone standing in a three-story building in The Sands could see – or even target – children in the playground at Carter Elementary.

"I grew up in low-income, I can understand what it's like to be fair and to provide quality of life for everyone," Martinez said. "This, a year ago, was my dream home in a nice, quiet area...Now, it's quickly turning into a nightmare with three-story buildings."

Other residents raised concerns that the Sands would trigger increases in traffic, noise and property taxes. They urged commissioners to consider how they would feel if a similar development was proposed in their backyards.

The Planning Commission in June pushed back a previous meeting on the Sands after staff received a letter from Canterra, which challenged some of the developer's environmental findings.

Planning Commission voted unanimously to continue its meeting on the Sands to March.

Desert Sun reporter Amy DiPierro covers real estate and business news for The Desert Sun. Reach her at amy.dipierro@desertsun.com or on Twitter @amydipierro.