Monthly Archives: January 2023

INFORMATIONAL MEETING – JANUARY 28 AT 1 PM – Wonder Valley Community Center

The Stop Wonder Inn Working Group has been busy reviewing the over 1,000 pages of study documents of the Wonder Inn 106-room resort complex.  And we want to share what we’re learning with you.  

We will host an informational meeting on Saturday, January 28, at 1 pm
at the Wonder Valley Community Center,
80526 Amboy Road, Wonder Valley.

We’ve been looking closely at what the developers claim about the potential impacts of their proposal. And we’ve been asking questions like these

  • Will a new commercial project of this scale really do nothing to change our community? 
  • Can they really use that much water without affecting our aquifer?
  • Will lighting for a full resort, and 210-space parking lot really not
    change our night sky? 
  • Will the increased traffic have no effect on our roads?
  • Have the developers really done their due diligence?  Do we have the full facts, both
    about the project itself and about the environment they’ll be affecting, and do the studies seem complete and credible?

At the January 28 meeting, we’ll share our findings so far.  We’ll also help you understand the County and CEQA review process, where we stand in it, and what happens next.  And, most importantly, how you can participate and make a difference in the outcome.

So if you want to stop the Wonder Inn or you want more information about the problems with the project, join us on Saturday, January 28, at 1 pm at the Wonder Valley Community Center!

Note:  The Stop Wonder Inn Working Group is paying for the rental of the Wonder Valley Community Center for this non-partisan event.

FIRST WIN!
COMMENT PERIOD EXTENDED!!

Congratulations!  Responding to pressure from you and others who care about Wonder Valley, County Land Use Services has just announced they will extend the comment period from 21 to 36 days!  

We did it!!!

The new deadline is Feb 22 at 4:30 pm.  This gives us more time to review the thousand pages of the Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration and make meaningful comments.  As we learn and understand more we’ll be sharing with you how to respond most effectively, so watch for updates. 

Important: We had tentatively scheduled an informational meeting for Jan.28 at the Wonder Valley Community Center. In light of this new development we may be rescheduling that meeting. Watch for updates!

So take a victory lap and join us in a deep breath of relief, before we get back to work! 

And always, you can help by getting the word out about the Wonder Inn, including with this printable flyer.  Plus, we now have buttons and stickers!  Contact us to find out where you can get them. And follow us on Instagram!

Thanks everyone!

It’s Time To Act To Oppose The Wonder Inn

Where Things Stand, And What You Can Do

County Land Use Services has reviewed the proposal for the Wonder Inn Project and decided they liked what they saw. We don’t. So now what?”

Status

The developers of the proposed 106-room hotel and resort submitted their application for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) in November 2021. In the ensuing year-plus they have submitted required technical studies to justify that their project meets the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act  and County development codes to the San Bernardino County Land Use Services (LUS) department.  Since learning of this CUP application a working group of concerned residents of Wonder Valley and the Morongo Basin have been regularly meeting to learn more about the project and have put up the stopwonderinn.org website with details about it.

These studies have now been reviewed by LUS and their report posted (look for Wonder Inn Hotel/Resort section or links at the bottom of this post) on January 14, 2023.  LUS has essentially greenlighted the project to proceed through the approval process, issuing their decision as follows: “Although the proposed project could have a significant effect on the environment, there shall not be a significant effect in this case because revisions in the project have been made by or agreed to by the project proponent. A MITIGATED NEGATIVE DECLARATION shall be prepared.”

The members of the Stop Wonder Inn Project working group will vigorously object to the LUS assessment as we feel that the project is highly inappropriate in the Wonder Valley area. We are in the process of reviewing the submitted studies in detail and are preparing to submit detailed, substantive comments to LUS.  

However, LUS has set the comment period on the Initial Study from January 17, 2023 to February 7, 2023 at 4:30 PM.  This gives the public only 21 days to review over 1000 pages of technical information and formulate a response to LUS with objections to the project and the report.  Given that the developers and LUS have taken over a year to create the report and propose mitigations, 21 days is an unreasonable amount of time for our concerned community to prepare informed responses — especially as our cursory review of the documents (in only the two days that we have had access to them) raises many questions. Therefore, we will immediately be requesting an extension to 45 days. We urge you to advocate for this extension to County officials as well, and to make it simple, you can use our webform to submit a request. UPDATE: WE GOT AN EXTENSION – Now 36 Days!  NEW DEADLINE FEB. 22, 2023.

If the Mitigated Negative Declaration stands without additional study, the project will be put before the County Planning Commission for potential approval and from there to the County Board of Supervisors for approval or denial. Those events are not currently scheduled but could happen in the near future. We will keep you up to date on when such events will happen and will encourage you to show up at these meetings to convey your objections and concerns about this project in person.

What You Can Do

  • First, request an extension of the comment period to 45 days.  You can use our webform to submit a request for extension. WE GOT THE EXTENSION – THANKS EVERYONE!
  • We are planning a community informational meeting in the next two weeks SOON to break down what we’re learning in our review of the report and help you understand how to send in your own comments.  Watch for that announcement.
  • The submitted developer studies are technically detailed and voluminous but if you have any knowledge or expertise in any of the content we would love to hear from you with constructive flags and analysis.  Send your ideas to info@stopwonderinn.org.  You can access the report and supporting documents at the links below.
  • Talk to your friends and neighbors about this project and tell them how they can participate in objecting to this project and let them know that they can sign up for our mailing list on this website.

If you’re ready to submit your comments on the report to County LUS please submit comments via our web form or directly to County LUS at azhar.khan@lus.sbcounty.gov or to:

Azhar Khan, Planner
County of San Bernardino
Land Use Services Department, Planning Division
385 N. Arrowhead Ave 1st Flr
San Bernardino, CA 92415

Links to documents submitted to LUS: