As you probably know, the County Planning Commission denied the Wonder Inn proposal on March 23, and the developers have appealed that decision to the Board of Supervisors. While we’re waiting for the appeal to be heard (no date scheduled yet), let’s look again at why the Planning Commission rejected the Wonder Inn.
We already explored their first finding, regarding land use. Now we’ll dig in to Finding #2, as stated in the Appeal: “[T]here is not sufficient supporting infrastructure, existing or available, consistent with the intensity of the development to accommodate the proposed project without significantly lowering service levels of the area.”
The Planning Commission is supported in this finding by the County’s own Land Use policies. The Countywide Policy Plan Land Use Element states as Principle: “New development should be focused in areas where there is potable water, wastewater treatment, roadways, and public services.” When the Commission referred to “supporting infrastructure,” it is these resources – potable water, wastewater treatment, roadways, and public services – they are talking about.
On all of these counts, any Wonder Valley resident knows we are already underserved. Adding the demands of a 106-room luxury hotel resort clearly would add a burden that local services are in no way equipped to support. Again, the Commission stated this straight out: “[T]here is not sufficient supporting infrastructure, existing or available, consistent with the intensity of the development to accommodate the proposed project without significantly lowering service levels of the area.”
Let’s start with a look at our roadways. Wonder Valley has 43 miles of paved road, and the remaining 130 miles – the miles that most residents live on and depend on – are dirt. These roads are maintained by an assessment on property owners in Wonder Valley at approximately $50 per parcel annually. They are rough and sandy roads that need constant maintenance and are easily degraded by excess or careless traffic as well as weather. It is to be expected that guests of the Wonder Inn will use these roads, whether heading to the National Park via Gammel Road, or simply exploring. The developer’s Appeal documentation ignores impacts to Wonder Valley’s network of fragile but critical roadways.
Regarding water and wastewater treatment, we’re going to look at this crucial topic in more detail in another post, but in brief: Wonder Valley does not have distributed water infrastructure. Our water source is domestic wells or hauled water. We also do not have potable water. The water from our aquifer is highly mineralized and was considered “contaminated” by the fire department when they closed our fire station. Wonder Valley does not have wastewater treatment facilities or sewer systems. We have individual septic systems with leach fields. A few people still have outhouses. Clearly, Wonder Valley does not have sufficient water or wastewater “supporting infrastructure” to serve a luxury hotel resort. (You can learn more about our concerns with water here.)
Finally, let’s talk about public services – Fire, Emergency Response, Law Enforcement, etc.
Bottom line: We already do not have adequate Fire/Emergency Medical Services for our community. The controversial closing of our fire station in 2017 increased our emergency response times to dangerous lengths. The distances in our 147-square-mile community were already a challenge. With the closing of Station 45, emergency response services now come all the way from Twentynine Palms, increasing response times by an average of an additional 10 minutes. This is not sufficient for saving lives or homes. To illustrate this point:
- A home fire doubles in size every minute. A cooking fire can completely engulf a home in 5 minutes. Wonder Valley has inadequate fire response times, which means in the event of a home fire in Wonder Valley, total loss of the home is highly likely.
- In the past 5 years, between January 2017 and January 2023, there have been over 33 structure fires in Wonder Valley that resulted in the total loss of property, with some families being left homeless. Sadly, some residents of Wonder Valley refer to the fire department as the “Slab Savers.”
- In the event of choking, drowning, or a heart attack, permanent brain damage begins after 4-5 minutes without oxygen. The current Emergency Medical Response times for Wonder Valley residents are already inadequate to save lives in the event of a life-threatening medical emergency.
On top of this dire situation, the proposed Wonder Inn would add the burden of an estimated 160 daily guests, 40 visitors and 20 staff (and there’s basis to believe this is an undercount). That’s an additional 220 people added to our existing population of 1019, increasing demand for already stressed public services in our area by roughly 21%.
So what does the developer’s Appeal documentation have to say in response to the Planning Commission’s finding on infrastructure services? They try to pass the buck to the County: “It is the County’s responsibility to determine and plan for adequate service levels for its residents, according to General Plan Policy Safety Element S.3.1.” [emphasis added]
It seems to us that the County met this responsibility squarely when the Planning Commission rejected the Wonder Inn project, determining that there was not sufficient infrastructure to support development like this project. And that should be the end to it: The County is planning for adequate service levels for its residents by putting a limit on unreasonable demand.
But the developers seem to have missed that point. This appears to be their formula: Their role is solely to provide revenue in the form of required taxes and fees. The County will receive that revenue, magically the agencies will have everything they need to provide adequate levels of services to a community that currently does not receive them, plus the added burden of a luxury hotel-resort, and everyone will be happy. They finish with a grand flourish: “Therefore, there would be adequate fire/paramedic services, and the Fire Department would have the financial means to maintain services.”
Sounds like a fairy tale, doesn’t it?
The Appeal attempts to bolster the formula with, among other statements, this quote from a SBCo Fire Department official: “The Fire Department has also increased staffing at the Twentynine Palms station intermittently based on available personnel and funding.” [emphasis added]
The devil’s in that bolded portion, isn’t it? With all due respect, and whatever the intentions and efforts of these agencies, the experience of the community is that there is NOT currently an adequate level of service from either Fire or Sheriff, and that “available personnel and funding” never seems to be nearly enough. Wonder Valley property owners are sorely aware that in 2018 they received a tax increase from $35 to $157 (an increase of nearly five-fold) to cover fire services to Wonder Valley, then the next year the Wonder Valley Fire Station nevertheless was permanently closed for budget reasons, resulting in the Wonder Valley community paying substantially more for even less adequate services.
Let’s look at this question of revenue. Would the Wonder Inn contribute enough to cover its own impacts and demands, as well as not lower the level of services already provided in the community? The Appeal documentation claims, “The Project would contribute Developer Impact Fees as well as Property Tax and Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) revenue” to assist the agencies with increasing service “if needed.”
Does that actually add up? County hospitality facilities pay a TOT currently of 7%. But the TOT goes into the County General Fund, not to the local community. A one-time impact fee (amount unknown) is unlikely to be enough to sustain services over the long haul. As far as property taxes, the fire department receives only 2.5% of the property taxes collected from the 4,634 property owners of Wonder Valley, and our services are already grossly inadequate at current funding levels.
Without actual numbers we can’t state definitively that the Wonder Inn could not generate sufficient tax revenue to cover the extra burden they would create. But color us very unconvinced. Very unconvinced.
In sum, in an underserved rural community, this proposed luxury resort, which would be the largest hotel in the Morongo Basin, would add little while further drawing down the already insufficient Public Services responsible for covering our vast undeveloped CSA 70-M service area. We must agree with the finding of the Planning Commission: “[T]here is not sufficient supporting infrastructure, existing or available, consistent with the intensity of the development to accommodate the proposed project without significantly lowering service levels of the area.”
