WRITTEN
PUBLIC
COMMENT
CITY COUNCIL
MEETING
MARCH 1, 2022
2 and out of the home next door, all year long, more similar to a short term vacation rental, which we do not allow in our HOA. I never see the same people next door and
when there are people in residence, they are never there for more than a few days. Pacaso says they do not allow rentals, but I am not convinced of that since I have never seen the same people or cars at the house. It is truly a timeshare being operated like a business.
In a recent Desert Sun article La Quinta City spokesperson Marcie Graham said that the city was "not aware of any activity or transactions" relating to Pacaso in its jurisdiction. She said the city would look further into the company if a situation arose that merited the use of city resources for that purpose, such as "a permit application, resident complaints or alleged code violation." I now have something I can document as a code violation, a lack of a permit application and a resident complaint:
On Thursday afternoon, 2/24/22, I watched 3 oversized Hollywood filming trucks, several motorcycles and cars, people everywhere, just take over my street. Pacaso gave access to our community to all these people without requesting permission from the HOA nor having applied for a filming permit. I want to thank our city compliance officer, who responded quickly and professionally once the case was opened. He was able to stop the activity and they did eventually leave the following morning. He stayed in communication and kept us updated and did not leave until the filming company was packed and driving out of our neighborhood.
I am respectfully asking the City to get involved and try to stop Pacaso from operating in my neighborhood. If they wish to sell a timeshare property, it should be in an area that the city deems appropriate for timeshare, where there is enough space to have a proper on-site manager, as required by law. The City of La Quinta is being cheated of it's transient occupancy tax while residents are losing our neighborhoods to these virtual hotels. More information about what other cities are doing can be found on the website: stoppacasonow.com
Thank you for your time and I am grateful for any help you can give on this matter.
CITY COUNCIL MEETING - MARCH 1, 2022 - PUBLIC COMMENTS BY RESIDENT MARTHA BROWN
MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA - OPPOSED TO PACASO HOMES OPERATING IN RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOODS Climate Breakdown Warning
Alena Callimanis
La Quinta Residents for Responsible Development
www.saynotothewave.com
CITY COUNCIL MEETING - MARCH 1, 2022 - PUBLIC COMMENTS BY RESIDENT ALENA CALLIMANIS
MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA - CLIMATE BREAKDOWN WARNING
Citing Drought, US won’t give water to
California Farmers
• Article by Adam Beam appeared February 23, 2022 in AP News; you have a copy of this article
• Third year of severe drought forcing federal officials to stop water deliveries
• Affects the nation’s largest agricultural water district covering 1,000 square miles in Fresno and Kings counties
• Will need to fallow over 200,000 acres
CITY COUNCIL MEETING - MARCH 1, 2022 - PUBLIC COMMENTS BY RESIDENT ALENA CALLIMANIS
MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA - CLIMATE BREAKDOWN WARNING
International Panel on Climate Change issues “bleakest
warning yet”
• Article by Fiona Harvey, Environment correspondent for The Guardian appeared February 28, 2022; you have a copy of this article. • Climate breakdown accelerating rapidly; impacts will be more severe than predicted
• There is only a narrow chance left of avoiding its worst ravages • Droughts, floods, heatwaves and other extreme weather are accelerating and wreaking increasing damage
CITY COUNCIL MEETING - MARCH 1, 2022 - PUBLIC COMMENTS BY RESIDENT ALENA CALLIMANIS
MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA - CLIMATE BREAKDOWN WARNING
Key Messages from the Report
• “The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet,” said Hans-Otto Pörtner, a co-chair of working group 2 of the IPCC. “Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future.”
• “Must halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 at the latest” • António Guterres, the UN secretary general, said: “I have seen many scientific reports in my time, but nothing like this. Today’s IPCC report is an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership.”
CITY COUNCIL MEETING - MARCH 1, 2022 - PUBLIC COMMENTS BY RESIDENT ALENA CALLIMANIS
MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA - CLIMATE BREAKDOWN WARNING
Why this relates to Coral Mountain Surf Resort
• Colorado River and State Water Agency allocations down and Terra Nova acknowledged that the evaporation numbers for the Surf Basin are over simplified and under calculated
• More water will be drawn from the aquifer than can be replenished • Serious consequences to the future of the whole Coachella Valley – what happens to us with this scenario?
• We can’t go back and buy more Colorado River water like CVWD has been doing to replenish the aquifer
• There are special consequences for the people of the Eastern Coachella Valley who don’t get CVWD water and whose wells are running dry or more contaminated water is pulled from the well CITY COUNCIL MEETING - MARCH 1, 2022 - PUBLIC COMMENTS BY RESIDENT ALENA CALLIMANIS
MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA - CLIMATE BREAKDOWN WARNING
Non-mitigatable Green House Gas Emissions
• Per the Draft Environmental Impact Report Coral Mountain Resort will consume would consume 8.6 million kWh/yr.
• However, since there is no ”Will Serve” letter from IID, we don’t know how the electrical consumption is calculated for the wave pool, how many times per hour it is run and how many days per year, so this electrical consumption is underreported • Kelley Slater wave technology which uses a hydrofoil on train tracks to move 18 million gallons of water, 150 million pounds of water, has been cited by Wave Pool Magazine as having the largest by far electrical requirement of any wave generating technology • The Green House gas emissions for generating this true amount of electricity is enormous
CITY COUNCIL MEETING - MARCH 1, 2022 - PUBLIC COMMENTS BY RESIDENT ALENA CALLIMANIS
MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA - CLIMATE BREAKDOWN WARNING
Non-mitigatable Green House Gas Emissions
• Cement manufacture contributes greenhouse gases both directly through the production of carbon dioxide when calcium carbonate is thermally decomposed, producing lime and carbon dioxide, and also through the use of energy, particularly from the combustion of fossil fuels. • Cement is the source of about 8% of the world's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions
• This basin alone, considering it will be dug down and not just across, will be lined with much more than 16.7 acres of cement
CITY COUNCIL MEETING - MARCH 1, 2022 - PUBLIC COMMENTS BY RESIDENT ALENA CALLIMANIS
MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA - CLIMATE BREAKDOWN WARNING
Non-mitigatable Green House Gas Emissions
• The Desert is a key ecosystem that absorbs carbon and acts as a carbon “sink”
• You will turn the Desert into a carbon “source” by releasing all the stored CO2 during construction
• And you will eliminate the ecosystem that helps protect us CITY COUNCIL MEETING - MARCH 1, 2022 - PUBLIC COMMENTS BY RESIDENT ALENA CALLIMANIS
MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA - CLIMATE BREAKDOWN WARNING
There are serious implications beyond the Coral Mountain area • You call us NIMBYS – however we are the ones looking at the impacts beyond our neighborhoods • There comes a point when you too must look beyond the Transient Occupancy Tax and the dubious distinction of having the largest Wave Basin in the world in your City during an unprecedented drought and heat wave and when California farmers are suffering • 2005 had 99 days over 100 degrees. Now having 150 days over 100 degrees concerns us as it should you • It is time to show leadership, not just for today, but for the future of La Quinta • What do you want as your legacy?
CITY COUNCIL MEETING - MARCH 1, 2022 - PUBLIC COMMENTS BY RESIDENT ALENA CALLIMANIS
MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA - CLIMATE BREAKDOWN WARNING
IPCC issues ‘bleakest warning yet’ on impacts of climate breakdown https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/28/ipcc-issuesbleakest-warning-yet-impacts-climate-breakdown Report says human actions are causing dangerous disruption, and window to secure a liveable future is closing
Analysis: This report asks: what is at stake? In short, everything Climate breakdown is accelerating rapidly, many of the impacts will be more severe than predicted and there is only a narrow chance left of avoiding its worst ravages, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said.
Even at current levels, human actions in heating the climate are causing dangerous and widespread disruption, threatening devastation to swathes of the natural world and rendering many areas unliveable, according to the landmark report published on Monday.
“The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet,” said Hans-Otto Pörtner, a co-chair of working group 2 of the IPCC. “Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future.” Droughts, floods, heatwaves
In what some scientists termed “the bleakest warning yet”, the summary report from the global authority on climate science says droughts, floods, heatwaves and other extreme weather are accelerating and wreaking increasing damage.
Allowing global temperatures to increase by more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, as looks likely on current trends in greenhouse gas emissions, would result in some “irreversible” impacts. These include the melting of ice caps and glaciers, and a cascading effect whereby wildfires, the die-off of trees, the drying of peatlands and the thawing of permafrost release additional carbon emissions, amplifying the warming further. ‘Atlas of human suffering’
António Guterres, the UN secretary general, said: “I have seen many scientific reports in my time, but nothing like this. Today’s IPCC report is an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership.” John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy for climate, said the report “paints a dire picture of the impacts already occurring because of a warmer world and the terrible risks to our planet if we continue to ignore science.
We have seen the increase in climate-fuelled extreme events, and the damage that is left behind – lives lost and livelihoods ruined. The question at this point is not whether we can altogether avoid the crisis – it is whether we can avoid the worst consequences.”
The report says:
• Everywhere is affected, with no inhabited region escaping dire impacts from rising temperatures and increasingly extreme weather.
• About half the global population – between 3.3 billion and 3.6 billion people – live in areas “highly vulnerable” to climate change.
• Millions of people face food and water shortages owing to climate change, even at current levels of heating. • Mass die-offs of species, from trees to corals, are already under way.
CITY COUNCIL MEETING - MARCH 1, 2022 - PUBLIC COMMENTS BY RESIDENT ALENA CALLIMANIS
MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA - CLIMATE BREAKDOWN WARNING
• 1.5C above pre-industrial levels constitutes a “critical level” beyond which the impacts of the climate crisis accelerate strongly and some become irreversible.
• Coastal areas around the globe, and small, low-lying islands, face inundation at temperature rises of more than
1.5C.
• Key ecosystems are losing their ability to absorb carbon dioxide, turning them from carbon sinks to carbon sources.
• Some countries have agreed to conserve 30% of the Earth’s land, but conserving half may be necessary to restore the ability of natural ecosystems to cope with the damage wreaked on them.
Chance to avoid the worst
This is the second part of the IPCC’s latest assessment report, an updated, comprehensive review of global knowledge of the climate, which has been seven years in the making and draws on the peer-reviewed work of thousands of scientists. The assessment report is the sixth since the IPCC was first convened by the UN in 1988, and may be the last to be published while there is still some chance of avoiding the worst.
A first instalment, by the IPCC’s working group 1, published last August, on the physical science of climate change, said the climate crisis was “unequivocally” caused by human actions, resulting in changes that were “unprecedented”, with some becoming “irreversible”.
This second part, by working group 2, deals with the impacts of climate breakdown, sets out areas where the world is most vulnerable, and details how we can try to adapt and protect against some of the impacts. A third section, due in April, will cover ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and the final part, in October, will summarise these lessons for governments meeting in Egypt for the UN Cop27 climate summit. ‘Cataclysmic’ for small islands
Small islands will be among those worst affected. Walton Webson, an ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda and the chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, called the findings “cataclysmic”.
He urged the UN to convene a special session to consider action. “We are continuing to head for a precipice – we say our eyes are open to the risks, but when you look at global emissions, if anything we are accelerating towards the cliff edge. We are not seeing the action from the big emitters that is required to get emissions down in this critical decade – this means halving emissions by 2030 at the latest. It is clear that time is slipping away from us.” Governments in other parts of the world could help their people to adapt to some of the impacts of the climate crisis, the report says, by building flood defences, helping farmers to grow different crops, or building more resilient infrastructure. But the authors say the capacity of the world to adapt to the impacts will diminish rapidly the further temperatures rise, quickly reaching “hard” limits beyond which adaptation would be impossible. ‘Global dominoes’
The climate crisis also has the power to worsen problems such as hunger, ill-health and poverty, the report makes clear. Dave Reay, the director of Edinburgh Climate Change Institute at the University of Edinburgh, said: “Like taking a wrecking ball to a set of global dominoes, climate change in the 21st century threatens to destroy the foundations of food and water security, smash onwards through the fragile structures of human and ecosystem health, and ultimately shake the very pillars of human civilisation.” The report plays down fears of conflicts arising from the climate crisis, finding that “displacement” and “involuntary migration” of people would ensue but that “non-climatic factors are the dominant drivers of existing intrastate violent conflicts”.
But Jeffrey Kargel, a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in the US, said: “The current warfare activity in eastern Europe, though not attributable to climate change, is a further caution about how human tensions and international relations and geopolitics could become inflamed as climate change impacts hit nations in ways that they are ill-prepared to handle.”
CITY COUNCIL MEETING - MARCH 1, 2022 - PUBLIC COMMENTS BY RESIDENT ALENA CALLIMANIS
MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA - CLIMATE BREAKDOWN WARNING
Citing drought, US won’t give water to California farmers By ADAM BEAM February 23, 2022 AP News https://apnews.com/article/business-environment-and-nature-californiadroughts-environment-c86858b419e8412491c303063309d91e SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — With California entering the third year of severe drought, federal officials said Wednesday they won’t deliver any water to farmers in the state’s major agricultural region — a decision that will force many to plant fewer crops in the fertile soil that yields the bulk of the nation’s fruits, nuts and vegetables. “It’s devastating to the agricultural economy and to those people that rely on it,” said Ernest Conant, regional director for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. “But unfortunately we can’t make it rain.”
The federal government operates the Central Valley Project in California, a complex system of dams, reservoirs and canals.
It’s one of two major water systems the state relies on for agriculture, drinking water, and the environment. The other system is run by the state government. Water agencies contract with the federal government for certain amounts of water each year. In February, the federal government announces how much of those contracts can be fulfilled based on how much water is available. The government then updates the allocations throughout the year based on conditions.
Farmers started last year with a 5% allocation from the federal government but ended at 0% as the drought intensified. This year, the federal government is starting farmers at 0% while water for other purposes, including drinking and industrial uses, is at 25%.
“Last year was a very bad year. This year could turn out to be worse,” Conant said. Westlands Water District, the nation’s largest agricultural water district covering 1,000 square miles (2,590 square kilometers) in Fresno and Kings counties, said drought conditions last year caused farmers to fallow 200,000 acres (80,937 hectares) while leaving “thousands of acres of food unharvested.” The district said it is the fourth time this decade that farmers south of the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta have gotten no water from the federal government. The water system operated by the state government is also struggling. In December, state officials also announced a 0% allocation. They upgraded that to 15% allocation in January after strong December storms. “Anyone who’s looked out the window in the past two months knows that California has not seen any significant rain and snow during what are supposed to be our wettest months of the year,” said Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources. “While December saw record storms, this type of climate whiplash makes it challenging to forecast conditions ahead.” State law requires both systems to have enough water available to maintain water quality throughout the San JoaquinSacramento River Delta, a sensitive environmental region home to endangered species of fish. Despite that, endangered species of fish — including salmon — have been dying by the thousands because there hasn’t been enough cold water for them to survive. In a news release, the Westlands Water District said it was disappointed with the allocation but understood the drought and environmental laws “prevent Reclamation from making water available under the District’s contract.” Regina Chichizola, executive director for Save California Salmon, said environmental water releases are important because they keep ocean saltwater from creeping too far into freshwater rivers. “Fish and people need that water,” she said.
Most of the water for both systems comes from rain and snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains. That water flows into the state’s rivers, which then fill a series of major reservoirs throughout the state. Typically, the reservoirs get depleted during the dry summer months before being replenished by winter storms.
But California is now entering the third year of a severe drought, with rain and snowfall far below historical averages.
January and February are usually the wettest months of the year in California. But the northern Sierra mountains, which are important for filling some of the state’s biggest reservoirs, have had just 1.7 inches (4.3 centimeters) of rain over those two months. That’s the lowest ever recorded, breaking a record set in 2013, said Kristin White, Central Valley operations manager for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
The Central Valley Project’s reservoirs have decreased by 26.5%compared with last year. And through the end of September, federal officials predict the reservoirs will get 1.2 million acre feet (1.4 billion cubic meters) less of water than they had planned. One acre-foot of water is typically enough to supply two average households for one year.
CITY COUNCIL MEETING - MARCH 1, 2022 - PUBLIC COMMENTS BY RESIDENT ALENA CALLIMANIS
MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA - CLIMATE BREAKDOWN WARNING
OPEN LETTER FEB 23 '22 Pt-13:18
from
ADVOCATES FOR BETTER COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT
(ABCD PALM SPRINGS)
TO: MANUEL PEREZ, RIVERSIDE COUNTY SUPERVISOR
AND THE COACHELLA VALLEY ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTS (CVAG), TOM KIRK,
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
RE: THE IMMEDIATE NEED FOR MORATORIUMS ON MASSIVE WAREHOUSING We desperately need your intervention, and we need it now. Our billion dollar tourist and leisure industry is very much dependent on the delicate scenic desert landscape which is under attack, and if we don't act now it will be too late. Once built, these projects will haunt us forever turning the area into a heavy industry zone. That is why moratoriums are essential to help us properly prepare for this onslaught.
Already the Palm Springs city council foolishly changed its zoning of adjacent 1-10 properties, allowing gargantuan structures up to 95 feet tall and simply ignoring its Planning Commission or public debate. As Desert Sun editorial writer Eric Hartley put it, "leaving the voters feeling blindsided."
In Banning, its city government has been considering approval of a 600,000 square foot warehouse next to an assisted living facility and right across the street from the Sun Lakes Country Club, a 3500 home senior community. They would face being surrounded by millions of square feet of warehouses. Plans include 200 semi trucks per day to enter the main highway to 1-10, already overwhelmed with traffic.
The race is on as short-sighted city councils are trying to give the store away before their neighboring jurisdictions beat them to it, all while being seduced by overblown visions of tax benefits which will ultimately destroy their quality of life, if not their communities themselves. That is why we are in need of a regional solution. To start with we need immediate moratoriums to give us time to sensibly and effectively deal with this horrendous threat. The "go slow" approach was supported on January 27th by the Desert Sun in a thoughtful editorial titled, "Palm Springs Should Hold Off On Major Warehouses." As the paper put it, "Allowing them in Palm Springs could lead to more around the valley leaving parts of our desert looking like generic stretches of the Inland Empirs rather than the unique treasure it is.''
Our leaders desperately need to grasp the immensity of the problem. A concerned Cathedral City resident suggested in a letter to the editor of the Desert Sun that the Palm Springs city council members should be required to actuaiiy see the probiem at its \·:erst, an example cf which is en route to the Riverside National Cemetery once you turn south on the 215. For u-iai matter ali our council people, planning commissions and supervisors should see it. The writer ot the ietter called it a" ... horror to behold. Miles of these huoe warehouses stretch across the horizon as far as you can see." Several organized bus trips would be in order for leader-s.
A decade ago citizens successfully taught a battle against an 8500 inmate prison planned alonQ the I-i O near the entrance to Palm Sprinqs. A study then conducted sho.,.-:ed the neq::1bve impact that would have had on tourism. Imagine what the area would be like today had we not oooosed :L
Too much is at stake. Once the place is ruined, there is no going back.
FrankTysen
President, ABCD
[email protected]
CITY COUNCIL MEETING - MARCH 1, 2022 - PUBLIC COMMENTS BY FRANK TYSEN
MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA - IMMEDIATE NEED FOR MORATORIUMS ON MASSIVE WAREHOUSING