The Palm Desert Planning Commission approved a 546-unit single-family residential community on the former Santa Rosa Golf Club site south of Frank Sinatra Drive and west of Portola Avenue during its meeting Tuesday evening.
The commission voted 3-0 to approve the project after hearing concerns from neighboring residents about traffic, privacy and changes to their community.
The Catavina development has been years in the making on an 81-acre site that once housed the Santa Rosa Country Club golf course, which operated from 1978 until its closure in 2015. The property was sold a decade ago with plans for housing, but those proposals stalled until Blue Fern Development submitted the new 546-home plan now moving through Palm Desert's approval process.
The Planning Commission held its first hearing on Nov. 4, approving a tentative tract map while continuing other components of the proposal to Tuesday’s meeting.
The project sits just east of Palm Desert Greens and next to a separate parcel where the City Council previously approved a 13-building, three-story apartment complex in 2023. That entitlement has since lapsed, and Blue Fern now intends to develop that site as well with 156 single-family homes under a new project called Portola Springs that is currently under review.
The project sits just east of Palm Desert Greens and next to a separate parcel where the City Council previously approved a 13-building, three-story apartment complex in 2023
Both developments have drawn attention from nearby residents concerned about height, density and the scale of adding hundreds of new homes to the city's north end.
Commissioners noted that the project complied with all requirements of the city's zoning ordinance and required no variances. The commission can only deny such projects based on health and safety concerns, and commissioners determined no such concerns existed with this proposal.
The developer agreed to provide screening and block walls to address neighbors' privacy concerns. Residents who live adjacent to the property expressed worries about losing the open space they had enjoyed for decades and potential impacts from the new residential community.
One commissioner acknowledged the difficulty of change for existing neighbors but expressed confidence that residents would appreciate the final development. The commission indicated it looks forward to working with new developers coming into the city to build additional housing stock.
The approval came during the same meeting where the commission also recommended changes to the city's truck routes that would remove Portola Avenue south of Frank Sinatra as a designated truck route due to the concentration of schools and housing along that corridor.