After about five hours of presentations by Land Use Services, the developers representatives and in person public comments, made by about 47(!) concerned citizens, at the March 23, 2023 San Bernardino County Planning Commission meeting considering the Wonder Inn Hotel/Development proposal, the Planning Commission voted unanimously (four “yes” votes on the motion, with one of them not present at the meeting) to DENY the project from going forward.

The developers can choose to appeal this decision to the Board Of Supervisors. If they don’t file an appeal then the project would not go forward.

This is an incredible outcome for protecting Wonder Valley’s unique and special character and for protecting the desert from damaging development projects. This was the right decision which we have all worked so hard for!

(You can view the meeting here. Planning Commission final deliberation and vote at 5:34:45 timestamp.)

The Stop Wonder Inn Project working group has endeavored over the past year+ to learn about the proposal, communicate the details of it, create awareness of County filings (the Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration and Staff Report), and to provide tools for people who have been concerned about this inappropriate and environmentally damaging proposal, so we could all remain informed and express our views to County decision makers. Over that time 500+ comments were made in opposition to the County.

This was an amazing and effective show of community concern. We are grateful for all of the people who submitted comments and especially all those who spoke, in person, at this meeting, in such a reasoned and passionate way.

We will post more as we learn if the developers will appeal this decision or not. If they do file an appeal we will continue to work, and inform you about that, so we can assure this development does not take place.

UPDATE: Here is the official posting of the denial action.