Agreement opens door to Palm Springs College of the Desert campus

Palm Springs and the Desert Community College District have reached an agreement that will bring a college campus to the city.

Announced last month, the agreement reaffirms the district’s commitment to develop the West Valley Campus, formally known as the Palm Springs Development Project, according to a district statement.

The district will build the campus on the site of the former Palm Springs Mall at 2365 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way.  The district bought that land in 2019.

“We are pleased with this resolution and look forward to strengthening our partnership with the city of Palm Springs,” said Laura Hope, the College’s interim superintendent/president, in the statement.  “This agreement allows us to refocus our primary efforts to serving students and advancing the Palm Springs campus project, a critical element of our shared vision for the region.”

The agreement resolves a legal dispute between the district and the city regarding the property where the campus was originally going to be built, a 127-acre parcel at Tramway Road and Indian Canyon Drive. The city bought that property from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for $2.1 million.

In September 2022, Palm Springs sued College of the Desert under the California Public Records Act, alleging that the school did not hand over documents the city requested regarding construction of the campus.

School officials reportedly wanted to know why the campus construction plans they received in 2022 called for a much smaller campus than the one first proposed three years earlier.

Some documents were provided, but the city said it needed more information. The October agreement resolves that dispute, and does not include an admission of wrongdoing by the city or the district.

“The college produced documents, but the city, at the time, disputed the level of response,” the statement reads. “This agreement puts these disputes to rest.”

Now, the district is committed to building a $405.7 million campus on the site of the former mall, which closed in 2005 after being in business for 46 years.

A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled to be held Nov. 14. Construction is expected to start next year, with the campus scheduled to be competed in 2027. The agreement assures cooperation between the college and Palm Springs, which city officials have wanted a college campus for years.

A branch campus of the College of the Desert is the the logical way to get one.

Established in 1958, the two-year college began offering classes in 1962 and has long been the cornerstone of higher education in the Coachella Valley. It has an enrollment of about 12,500 students.

In 2004, Coachella Valley voters approved Measure B, a $346.5 million bond measure intended to help the College of the Desert build and maintain new facilities. Twelve years later, Measure CC was approved for the same reason, adding $577,8 million.

Both initiatives were approved with the understanding that they would be used to build a campus in Palm Springs, according to the district statement.

College of the Desert in Palm Desert operates four satellite campuses in the Coachella Valley, including a temporary operation at 1300 E. Baristo Road in Palms Springs. Last month, a groundbreaking ceremony was held in Cathedral City at the future site of Roadrunner Motors, which will house the college’s automotive training program.

The permanent Palm Springs campus will be a major step forward not just for Palm Springs but the Coachella Valley, said Bruce Hoban, a nine-year Palm Springs resident.

“I am ecstatic that this agreement came to pass,” said Hoban, one of the founders of Promises Made-Promises Broken, a group that supports building a West Valley campus in Palm Springs. “It it guarantees that we will have a beautiful, state-of-the-art campus that can be used for multiple purposes.”

The new campus will specialize in teaching careers that play a major role in the Coachella Valley’s economy, including hospitality, culinary arts, casino management, digital media, entertainment, healthcare and sustainable technology.

For too long, Coachella Valley residents have gotten their degrees and pursued their careers elsewhere. That’s a practice that must be stopped for the sake of the desert economy, Hoban said.

Casino management is a case in point: because the University of California and the California State University systems don’t offer four-year degrees in that discipline, the West Valley campus will be allowed to do so.

“We will be able to educate people who will be able to get good-paying jobs in the Coachella Valley,’’ Hoban said. “We ‘ll keep them here rather than lose them to other places.”

Palm Spring has been trying for two decades to get a college campus developed within its borders, said Mayor Jeffrey Bernstein.

“The College of the Desert Palm Springs Campus has been in the works for 20 years and it is finally set to become a reality,”  Bernstein said in a statement released by the city.  “The campus will be instrumental in giving our school kids, 97 percent of whom live at the federal poverty level, real opportunity for advancement.”

The campus will also provide prospective employees for business in Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley.

“With the bachelor’s degree offerings, and the high level of interest and involvement from our community, the Palm Springs campus will transform the traditional role of a community college to become a true educational destination.”

The college will offer two bachelor’s degree programs, one in architectural design, the other in casino gaming and management.

The casino program will be the only one in California and one of only three in the country, and will include a culinary and hospitality institute, according to the Palm Springs statement.