La Quinta buys more land for affordable housing near Highway 111

La Quinta officials, facing a state mandate to add more than 1,500 housing units over this decade, agreed last week to purchase 5.2 acres along the city's main retail corridor, with plans to turn the land into affordable housing near Highway 111.

The city council unanimously approved buying the land just northeast of Highway 111 and Dune Palms Road. The city will pay the $3.6 million cost from its unassigned reserves and bond funds.

It's the second parcel near Highway 111 recently bought by the city with affordable housing in mind. In February 2022, the city bought a 15-acre lot, just a block west of the land it bought last week, for $8.6 million.

The city envisions the lot bought last year as a mixed-use development with shops and affordable housing, though it has yet to find a partner for the plan. In contrast, the land purchased last week is slated to just include housing, with a separate retail space abutting it, according to Gil Villalpando, the city’s housing development director.

Both properties are located next to a new stretch of the CV Link, a 40-mile paved trail planned for pedestrians, cyclists and golf carts throughout the valley. The new stretch along the Whitewater Wash, which is under construction and projected to open later this year, will connect between La Quinta, Indio and Coachella. La Quinta High School is also a block north of the area.

“With CV Link going right there, the school, I think that's a great location,” Villalpando said in an interview. “Someone can work at Home Depot, walk to work and be able to go up and down (the area) … That was the same thought when we got the property next to Best Buy.”

The city hopes to find a single development partner to build on both lots in phases, an approach that could potentially lower some costs, Villalpando said. La Quinta officials plan to issue a request for development proposals soon, and any final plans for the properties would need city council approval.

Officially, the council approved the land purchases in its capacity as the city's housing authority. The land it agreed to buy Tuesday has been owned by BP Dune Palms LP.

The purchases come after La Quinta officials have discussed a reimagining of the city’s Highway 111 corridor, where large retail stores account for roughly 75% of the city’s annual sales tax revenue. In 2019, the city paid a consulting firm $205,000 to help develop plans for the area as a “retailtainment” destination in the valley.

More:La Quinta has look at Highway 111 'retailtainment' draft plan

Developing the area should also help the city achieve its state-mandated affordable housing goals in the long term. By 2029, La Quinta is supposed to add 1,530 housing units, with the majority of those for people at very low-to-moderate income levels.

There are 24,764 housing units in the city, but almost a third of them aren't occupied full time, since La Quinta has so many seasonal rentals and vacation homes, city data show. That means 1,500 new homes would effectively represent a roughly 10% increase in the number of occupied households.

The Highway 111 corridor “provides the city with the best opportunity for mixed-use development — or more specifically the integration of more intense residential development,” due to its proximity to schools, employers, public transit and other services, according to the city’s long-term general plan adopted in 2013.

Villalpando said it is too early to say how many housing units could be built at the two city-owned lots. Despite inflation causing the costs of development to skyrocket, the housing director was optimistic that partners are out there.

“We have a long list of housing developers that really would love to come to La Quinta, so we'll see what happens,” Villalpando said. “I think it's going to boil down to costs.”

Tom Coulter covers the cities of Palm Desert, La Quinta, Rancho Mirage and Indian Wells. Reach him at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: La Quinta buys land for affordable housing near Highway 111