Indio considers major eastern expansion to boost local jobs

City officials in Indio are exploring the annexation of 3,300 acres of land east of the city to address an employment deficit where most residents commute to other valley cities for work.

During last week’s City Council meeting, city staff and consultants presented findings from Phase 1 of the East Indio Employment Corridor Annexation Study, revealing that approximately 84% of Indio residents are employed outside the city, based on 2021 numbers.

“We’re doing pretty good with housing. We’re building some housing, but we need more jobs,” said Brian Halvorson, the city’s director of community development. “This area would help the city to try to balance that discrepancy that we have.”

The study identified that only 1.6% of Indio’s parcels are currently zoned for industrial use, limiting growth in the manufacturing, light industrial, and logistics sectors. Light industrial includes businesses that work in logistics, warehousing, and other forms of production.

Rachel Lindt, senior planner at Dudek and project manager for the study, said there could be long term problems if the employment deficit continues.

“With such a large number of employees leaving the area, this can cause a lot of economic issues; loss of talent, loss of tax revenue that constrain public services, infrastructure maintenance,” Lindt explained.

Councilmember Oscar Ortiz emphasized the importance of ensuring that new development creates quality employment opportunities.

“I would just want our council to consider [that] when we bring in those businesses, are those going to be job-creating businesses, or is there going to be a lot of automation? Because those are going to be different impacts on our community,” Ortiz said.

“We’re building some housing, but we need more jobs.”
— Brian Halvorson, Indio director of community development

The study found that of the 3,300 acres being examined, about 700 acres between 40th Avenue and Fargo Canyon Road have the lowest level of development constraints, making it the easiest place to start development.

The land is considered unincorporated Riverside County and is not within Indio’s city limits. It is, however, within its “sphere of influence,” which allows it to make an application to the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) to annex the land.

Mayor Glenn Miller noted that this annexation opportunity is particularly important given Indio’s past decision not to expand westward.

“The city of Indio, when we had the opportunity to go all the way to Washington Street, and we didn’t take it, because it just wasn’t at that time in the purview they didn’t feel was very important,” Miller said. “And obviously we’ve seen how it grows.”

Miller emphasized that annexation would make the city more economically viable though it would require balancing potential benefits with infrastructure costs.

“I think anytime we can build, bring in land to be able to redevelop it, to bring in jobs, infrastructure and other stuff, that’s going to make the city more viable,” he said. “But we’ve also got to marginalize it by what it’s going to cost us now to maintain it.”

The recommended development strategy would allocate approximately 600 acres for a mixed-use business park, with 430 acres dedicated to light industrial uses, 35 acres for offices, and smaller portions for retail, infrastructure and open space.

Councilmember Waymond Fermon highlighted Indio’s unique position among most other valley cities:

“[T]hat’s something that Indio has, that a lot of other cities don’t have. They don’t have room to grow,” he said. “Yes, it’ll be some dollars to expand utilities out there, but we still have opportunity. The other cities don’t.”

The City Council will receive a final report with conceptual planning scenarios in July, which will help determine whether to proceed with Phase 2 of the project – a formal reorganization request to LAFCO.

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