Palm Springs Planning Commission approves self-storage project at 900 N. Ferrell Drive with conditions on screening and design

The Palm Springs Planning Commission on April 28 voted to recommend approval of a major development permit (DP2025-0018) for a proposed two-story, roughly 92,400-square-foot self-storage facility at 900 North Ferrell Drive, subject to conditions aimed at strengthening landscape screening and architectural treatment.

Staff told the commission the 4.2-acre site is zoned M1P with an industrial general-plan designation and that the project is categorically exempt from CEQA as a Class 32 infill development. Staff said the plan includes 52 RV/boat parking spaces, 128 standard parking spaces, two EV spaces and two ADA spaces, and that a vehicle-miles-traveled analysis was not required for this use because significant traffic impacts were not anticipated. "A VMT is not required given the nature of this use," staff stated during the presentation.

Eric Foss, senior vice president of Legacy Built Investments and the applicant representative, told commissioners the company has been in the self-storage business since 1979 and said, "we are eager not to just get a project approved, but to have it built and operating soon," adding that the team had empirical trip data showing traffic would fall below threshold limits. On practical design questions he said, "it's actually easier for an RV to... back into a parking stall and then to drive out," explaining the rationale for the back-in parking layout.

Commissioners pressed the applicant and staff on several technical inconsistencies that appeared across submittal materials — including differing square-footage figures and an earlier 41-versus-52 count for RV spaces — and obtained staff confirmations and corrections on the record. The commission also flagged a plan error showing a 25-foot north setback; staff confirmed the wall will be on the property line and the landscape will be interior to the development.

The primary grounds for the commission's conditions were screening and aesthetics. Commissioners said the RV parking along Ferrell Drive risks exposing a long, visible row of vehicles and asked for more robust, layered plantings and larger initial tree sizes. One commissioner recommended the Architectural Review Commission consider trees "at least 36-inch box" where appropriate, ensure sufficient irrigation, and extend canopy screening along Computer Way and the north property line to better conceal RV parking. Commissioners also asked ARC to reconsider façade materials and the Ferrell frontage appearance — specifically urging alternatives to corrugated metal and a reconsideration of a single horizontal band so the building better reflects Palm Springs design characteristics.

The motion for approval, as stated on the record, tied the permit to ARC review of landscaping and architectural details and to the conditions summarized in the draft resolution; the commission then voted by roll call and recorded unanimous yes votes from Chair Warmack; Commissioner Rottman; Vice Chair Lin; Commissioners Murphy, Baker and Morrell; and Alternate Megan Hernandez. The motion was recorded as approved.

Next steps: the Architectural Review Commission will review detailed landscape and material selections per the motion and staff will correct the record on square footage and parking tables as noted in the hearing. The project also remains subject to airport-related conditions (e.g., limited basin vegetation to deter birds, glare study if solar is added) identified in the Airport Land Use Commission's consistency determination.