Palm Springs council backs staff plan for South Palm Canyon bridge, rejects land-trust alternative for now

Palm Springs City Council on July 21 authorized staff to move forward with the city’s proposed South Palm Canyon bridge and culvert design, rejecting an alternative plan submitted by the OSWET Land Trust for further study at this time.

The council acted after staff presented results of a 60‑plus day public engagement process and engineers explained technical and funding risks associated with changing the design. City Engineer Joel Montalvo summarized the outreach and consultant review; Palm Springs Fire Chief Paul Alvarado and dozens of residents testified in favor of the city plan because they called the project a life‑safety priority. Representatives of OSWET and outside engineers urged the council to consider a narrower floodwall alternative that they say would lessen habitat impacts.

Why it matters: The council’s action preserves federal construction funding and moves a “shovel‑ready” project toward bidding and construction while the city completes a CEQA addendum and NEPA revalidation. Staff and several residents said delaying the project could risk $4.5 million in Caltrans funding and leave Andreas Hills neighborhoods without reliable emergency access during storms.

City staff and consultant Daily Strategies described the community outreach that followed a council direction in April to pause a vote and gather additional input. Mark Wire of Daily Strategies said meetings, mailings and media outreach yielded 150 meeting attendees and 59 recorded comments. Public safety and emergency access were the most frequently raised concerns; environmental impacts and cost were the major topics among opponents.

Chief Paul Alvarado told the council his firefighters were “stretched to the limit” during the Valentine’s Day 2019 flood and Tropical Storm Hilary in 2023 and said improved access at South Palm Canyon would reduce needless rescue operations. “Important mitigation efforts like the South Palm Canyon [bridge] can significantly impact that by keeping drivers safe on South Palm Canyon and allowing our firefighters to have access to that neighborhood,” Alvarado said.

OSWET Land Trust representatives and their engineering consultant, Richard Heyman, urged the council to advance a “floodwall” concept that, they said, would keep most construction on city property and reduce impacts to low‑elevation alluvial‑fan habitat used by Peninsular bighorn sheep. Heyman said the OSWET modeling shows reduced water depth at Bogart Trail and that local velocity‑dissipation measures could address erosion at the culvert inlet.

City and Dokken (Dokken/Dokken‑branded) engineering staff told the council the OSWET design raised unanswered technical questions, potential right‑of‑way negotiations and unknown costs that would require reopening federal environmental processes and potentially restarting Caltrans phases. Dokken Engineering project manager Mike Greer said the city’s current design shows lower velocities entering the box culvert and that the rock slope protection proposed should remain stable in the design storm. Montalvo warned that adopting the OSWET alternative could require redoing engineering and environmental work and “send us back to square one” with Caltrans funding.

Council discussion centered on balancing long‑standing wildlife conservation work in Ozwit/Ozwick Canyon and the immediate public‑safety risks for about 700 homes that rely on single access through the wash. Residents from Andreas Palms and Andreas Hills gave multiple personal accounts of being stranded or of emergency calls that could not be handled quickly during high water events.

Action and next steps: Council voted to accept staff’s recommendation to proceed with the city’s design and authorize staff to complete the CEQA addendum and NEPA revalidation while implementing an expanded communications timeline and continued engagement with OSWET and stakeholders. Staff told the council it expects the updated environmental work to be completed in August and that the Caltrans construction obligation and reversion deadlines create a risk of de‑obligation if the project does not advance in a timely way. City staff stated the Caltrans construction allocation is about $4.5 million; city canyon funds of roughly $2.1 million were discussed as additional local funding.

Council members and staff said the council will continue to receive updates and that staff will include OSWET’s alternatives in technical review but emphasized that substantially reworking the project footprint could jeopardize current funding and require reopening prior environmental approvals.

Residents and environmental groups who asked for a pause said they were satisfied that the council kept channels for continued review open; conservation groups specifically requested that any adoption of measures or construction be informed by U.S. Fish and Wildlife questions and the pending supplemental environmental review.

Ending: With the council’s vote, staff will proceed to finalize environmental steps and prepare procurement work to move the bridge project toward construction while continuing stakeholder outreach to explore habitat mitigation and any design refinements that do not jeopardize funding or substantially reset the Caltrans process.