Cathedral City staff outline 2023–24 General Plan progress; council to accept report on consent agenda

Associate Planner Dom Camps presented Cathedral City’s 2023–24 General Plan Annual Progress Report at a council study session and told the council the document will be on the regular-meeting consent agenda for formal acceptance.

"The purpose of this report is to provide transparency to members of the public as well as to the council on progress on implementing the general plan," Camps said, noting the report covers implementation activity for calendar years 2023 and 2024 and is the first annual progress report since the council adopted the Cathedral City General Plan in July 2021.

The presentation summarized a selection of actions and ongoing programs that staff say implement the plan’s 13 elements. Staff highlighted process improvements intended to streamline development review, including expanded use of a preliminary-review application and interdepartmental review through a Development Services Committee. Camps said the Development Services Committee was changed in 2024 from monthly to bimonthly to better serve applicants. Camps also described the launch of the EnerGov permitting platform and a citizen self-service portal intended to let applicants submit plans, receive markup and resubmittal requests, and reduce paper submittals.

Camps gave the Ramon Road commercial project as an example of early-plan review informing design: preliminary review flagged that placing a drive-through on the east side of the site would put the facility closer to residences and could create a noise issue; staff recommended rotating the configuration so the drive-through would be on the west side adjacent to commercial uses.

Staff described the ongoing comprehensive development-code update, which will revise the zoning ordinance, subdivision ordinance, and design guidelines. Camps said consultant Minteer Harnish has been selected to assist with the update and that code changes will address community design standards, removal of barriers to affordable housing, and standards to support new industries and accessory dwelling units.

Active-transportation projects implemented in 2023–24 were among the items highlighted: construction of a multiuse trail on Cathedral Canyon Drive, bike lanes on East Palm Canyon Drive, CB Link build-out, CV Link connections at Esperanza Park, and an ADA-compliant crosswalk and ramp at Panorama Park. Camps said these projects implement circulation and parks-and-recreation policies intended to improve pedestrian and bicycle access and support environmental-health goals.

Camps also listed other cross-department activities tied to the plan, including Community Emergency Response Team training from the Fire Department, planned updates to the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan and Emergency Operations Plan, GIS/hub improvements led by MIS, and parks and public-works projects. He noted a future community center project as an example of work enabled by the passage of Measure W in November 2024.

Council members and a resident asked questions about how staff categorize actions in the report (for example, "no action," "ongoing," or "complete") and how the plan relates to specific operational concerns such as traffic conditions at particular intersections. Camps said some program entries are discretionary or "when necessary" and that annual reporting provides an opportunity to reflect on whether items require further attention or follow-up. On the question of how residents can report a specific intersection problem, staff said service-request channels through Public Works/Engineering are the operational path to initiate an engineering review.

Staff recommended the council receive the 2023–24 General Plan Annual Progress Report for information and discussion; the presentation concluded with the reminder that the report is on that night’s consent agenda for formal acceptance.