RECAP: Twentynine Palms City Council, July 28, 2026, Part 1
Council tables citywide sewer ordinance, rescinds Ofland Resort zoning entitlements, splits 2-2 on Hope Center partnership.
Last Tuesday, July 28, the Twentynine Palms City Council held an action-packed meeting. Though the session ran more than two and a half hours, captivating discussions on the City’s restaurant and sewer connection policy, a community resilience center grant, and lively public comment contributed to a well-attended meeting. All five Councilmembers were present.
The 301-page agenda packet is linked here.
Our preview of this meeting is available here.
Video footage of the meeting is available here.
We will highlight discussion of the Community Resilience Center Grant Partnership with the Sanctuary Church / Hope Center and Public Comment in Part 2 of our meeting recap.
CITY ENGINEER’S UPDATE: A dozen grant-funded projects
City Engineer Richard Pederson walked the Council through the City’s active projects, several of which have been in the pipeline for over a decade.
The Split Rock Avenue Bridge, under construction since January, is ahead of schedule and could finish months early. Pederson called the project itself unusual:
This project started in 2014 after we had a serious couple fatalities located [at] this location.…We were approved to construct a brand new bridge, which is really unheard of. They don’t construct new bridges anymore.
The bridge’s price came in at $3.3 million, with the CalTrans bridge program covering 88%. The new concrete channel is expected to cost $3.7 million, fully funded by the flood control district with no City match required.
Other projects Pederson highlighted:
The Safe Routes to School project (El Paseo Drive to Adobe Road). The City has applied to have 100% of this $2.3 million sidewalk and bike path project funded through state Active Transportation Program grants, with design funding provided by SBCTA (San Bernardino County Transportation Authority).
The Hatch-Sullivan Class II bike path, with construction set to begin Spring 2027.
State Route 62 Street Phase 2B, a $5.3 million sidewalk extension that will use a prefabricated pedestrian bridge by Grocery Outlet to cross an existing drainage channel on Encelia and Larrea; paid for by SBCTA.
The citywide Channel trail design, a $405,000 study funded 90% by SBCTA — well below the typical 50% local match other cities pay — now moving through a required FEMA no-rise flood study following a County flood control district request.
The downtown wastewater treatment plant (Project Phoenix)
Councilmember Octavious Scott asked about the timeline for a separate Caltrans storm-damage repair near the Stater Brothers bridge, prompting Pederson to note he has no completion estimate:
I wish I had control over Caltrans. Our lives would all be a lot easier.
City Manager Kevin Cole added that the repair has been slowed by Caltrans having to coordinate with County Flood Control.
COUNCILMEMBER COMMENTS AND REPORTS OF MEETINGS ATTENDED
Except for speaking with constituents, most councilmembers reported a quiet July. Mayor Mintz said he attended a community meeting on the Music Valley Mine, noting that the Australian-based mine developers have not approached the City about the project, even though claims have been staked within the City’s boundaries:
They have not asked us for anything, and they have not submitted anything to the City. So I just want everybody to know that. That’s why you haven’t heard anything from us.
CITY MANAGER’S REPORT
Keeping in line with the agenda order, the City Manager’s report followed.1
City Manager Cole said that the City’s cooling center, which is located at the Twentynine Palms Senior Center, 6539 Adobe Road, will be available once the heat index reaches 110 degrees. Cole said that operating criteria is based on heat index, not raw temperature, and the City factors in cloud cover, wind, and humidity. The City announces the center’s availability on its Facebook page, as well as on Z1077.
The Senior Center is open to seniors Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.–5 p.m. If the heat index is still elevated after 5 p.m., City staff takes over. He said the cooling center would likely be open this weekend given the weather forecast.
The City’s warrant register for July included over $60,000 in City attorney fees. Cole noted that $19,000 of that was related to code enforcement and property abatement procedures, saying it costs the City roughly $40,000 to clean up a single property.
Separately, Cole highlighted rising public records request costs, acknowledging that the City spent about $8,000 in June processing PIRs (public information requests). He stated that the City is now starting to track staff time separately to fulfill these requests.
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CONSENT CALENDAR: The treasurer’s report and five-year Measure I plan get pulled
The consent calendar drew pointed discussion. Councilmember April Ramirez pulled Item 7 (the quarterly treasurer’s report) and Item 8 (the five-year Measure I Capital Improvement Plan expenditure strategy) for discussion. Mayor Daniel Mintz and Councilmember Steven Bilderain each abstained from separate unrelated items, with Mintz recusing on Project Phoenix items and Bilderain recusing on an item for Semper Fi Sports. The remainder of the consent calendar passed on a motion by Councilmember McArthur Wright.
A sharper exchange came over Item 8, the City’s Measure I strategy. Measure I is a half-cent county sales tax approved by San Bernardino County voters in 1989 that funds road and transportation improvements. As required by the measure, each year the City submits a 5-year plan outlining which projects, current and future, Measure I covers.
Ramirez said the document’s one-line description of the City’s approach — later described by staff as “pay as you go” — fell short of what a five-year capital plan should contain, and that constituents had raised concerns:
Respectfully, after listening to the constituents, this answer here is so minimal that it borders on unserious... Council should not be asked to adopt a five-year plan supported by a four-word strategy.
City Manager Kevin Cole and Community Development Director Keith Gardner explained that Measure I funds are used almost entirely for road rehabilitation and preservation rather than new construction, with priorities set by road conditions, and that the brief language is close to standard template wording SBCTA expects. However, comparing the countywide five-year Measure I plan, as well as the five-year Measure I plan of other cities, show that extensive differences between the Twentynine Palms and other municipalities plans are apparent.
Instead of using boilerplate language such as “pay as you go,” the City of Redlands, for example, has the following language in their five-year Measure I capital improvement plan:
The City of Redlands intends to use Measure I dollars to partially fund the City’s Council-approved Pavement Management Program (PMP). The City’s Pavement Management Program, which provides a decision making matrix in identifying streets that are priority paving projects, will be used to determine future Measure I Capital Improvement Plans.
Language in the Twentynine Palms plan is nonexistent. Cole said staff could add more detail in a future iteration.
Item 7, a fourth-quarter financial report for FY’25-’26, was also pulled. Ramirez inquired on the overall health of the City’s financial portfolios, which the staff report did not elaborate on other than noting the City has sufficient funds to cover the next six months of operations. City Finance Director Abigail Hernandez-Conde was not present at the meeting to field questions from Council.
City Manager Cole said he would forward questions on the Treasurer’s Report to Hernandez-Conde. Both items were then approved as presented, with no changes made.
PUBLIC HEARINGS
OFLAND RESORT: Council formally rescinds entitlements
Community Development Director Keith Gardner presented this item, which was a formal rescission of all project entitlements previously granted by the City for the Ofland Resort development. Following a CEQA mediation process in public court, developers of the proposed 100-cabin glamping resort approved in 2025, requested the rescission, citing market conditions.
Desert Trumpet Editor Cindy Bernard spoke on behalf of Indian Cove Neighbors, who, along with the Center for Biological Diversity, brought a lawsuit against the development and the City. Bernard thanked Council and paid tribute to fellow Indian Cove resident, Jim Lawless, who played a critical role in the project’s opposition. Lawless passed away before Council could vote to rescind it:
I made sure he was aware that this vote was coming because I knew it was incredibly important to him.…I wish he were here to see it.
Resident John Tally-Jones asked that the resort’s Open Space Conservation (OS-C) zoning designation type be preserved as an option in the city’s ongoing General Plan Land Use updates:
One silver lining of the original set of entitlements was the establishment of a new zoning designation, OS-C, or Open Space Conservation. My hope is that this designation can be reestablished as part of the upcoming general plan additions. It will be a useful option for ensuring a necessary balance between housing requirements, development efforts, and maintaining our natural landscape.
The project rescission was approved 5-0. A second vote is scheduled for the August 25 meeting.
Sewer & Restaurant Ordinance Gets Tabled
This public hearing involved implementation of a citywide sewer and fats, oils, and grease (FOG) permitting system, which would be applicable to all food service establishments and all new developments proposed within 200-feet of any package treatment plant or City sewer system. Mayor Daniel Mintz recused himself from this item because of family financial interests in the area covered by Project Phoenix.
Twentynine Palms has no city sewer system, with the majority of structures relying on septic tank systems. Freedom Plaza will be served by a small package sewage treatment plant built specifically for the downtown site as part of Project Phoenix. The plant has an anticipated construction completion date of September 2026, per Community Development Director Keith Gardner and City Engineer Richard Pederson. It required a 20% funding match plus contingency money, and the City Council later approved an $80,000 transfer to help pay for utility connections to operate it.
The FOG program, to be applicable to all food service establishments, whether fast food or sit down, is required as a condition of grant funding for the nearly-complete downtown Project Phoenix wastewater plant, although it has citywide implications.
Councilmembers and community stakeholders expressed concern at the proposed fee schedule, a new permit enforcement process, and potential increasing costs for business owners.
Councilmember Ramirez critiqued the imprecise language in the ordinance, and asked that a fee schedule be included prior to a policy implementation vote. Ramirez also sought clarification on language regarding “special agreements” the City can execute with businesses or stakeholders that make them exempt from this new ordinance while others might foot the bill:
The language says the permit may require pretreatment, the permit may require specific equipment. The permit may restrict discharge. The permit may restrict hours of operation. Do you guys know what that would do to a small business who’s just making it? The permit may impose additional fees. What are they? We don’t know because they’re not in here.
Ramirez said ordinance language was lacking in being fair, equal, and enforceable, citing page 259 of the agenda packet that provides City leeway to seek criminal prosecution for compliance failure, Ramirez emphasized, “That does not match with ‘we support small businesses.’”
Gardner said the underlying legal language has to comply with State of California requirements, but that staff could return with a plain-language implementation guide alongside a fee schedule.
Speaking from the public was business owner and restaurateur Eileen Leslie who commented:
I’d like to know who in the City has an existing special agreement so that they are exempt from all of these qualifications, because I’m now taking on a new yearly program, and it’s subjective to whatever you want to do. I want a special agreement—you designed and you built and you put in my septic tank. I’m not going to have subjective conditions come on someone who’s doing what they’re supposed to do. You have a smell in the City. Address it.
Leslie said she hoped the City was not being billed by its attorney to draft an ordinance that appeared to be copied and pasted from another municipality.
I hope you’re not paying an attorney to copy and paste. I hate to see his billing hours because this is out of another city. All of you need to read and apprise yourselves of why this was instituted. Why are there FOG programs in cities that have sewers? Because of our ocean. We don’t go to the ocean.
Councilmember McArthur Wright highlighted that the language can be confusing and encouraged staff to come back with “Mac” friendly” language. Piggybacking off Ramirez on the lack of a set fee schedule was Mayor Pro Tem Scott:
I actually think it’s important, and I agree with Councilwoman Ramirez that maybe we bring this back at the same time, even though they have to be voted on separately, for transparency and to show that we are business friendly.
Ramirez concluded Council discussion:
I couldn’t help but notice that this looks a lot different than what was previously presented by our previous city manager. This looks more vague—a lot more vague.
Scott moved to table the item and direct staff to return with clearer language and a fee schedule; the motion passed 4-0-1, with Mintz having recused himself.
Part 2 of our recap of the City Council meeting will highlight the Community Resilience Center Grant and public comments.
NOTE: Desert Trumpet staff members Cindy Bernard, Kat Talley-Jones, and Heidi Heard live in the Indian Cove neighborhood, adjacent to this proposed development project, and are on the organizing committees of Indian Cove Neighbors and Say No to Ofland. Read our policy for covering Ofland here.
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Previous manager H. Stone James broke this order of operations by giving the City Manager’s report at the very end of Council meetings, after public comment had been closed. Cole restored reports back to their original Agenda order.