Palm Desert Development Review Services

Challenge: The City of Palm Desert is centrally located in the heart of the Coachella Valley in southeastern Riverside County. Known as the cultural and retail center of the desert communities, it is approximately 21 square miles with a population of 52,500 and has a small in-house municipal staff. As a forward-thinking community, the City wished to implement some key initiatives and needed consultant assistance to achieve program and project objectives.

Solution: Following a competitive procurement process to identify a consultant with the ability to deliver a breadth of services, HR Green was contracted to deliver a full range of consulting services, including building and civil plan check, acting City Engineer, entitlement engineering, and city surveyor services for public works. Our services are provided both on-site and remotely.

Since 2021, the City, with the assistance of HR Green, has approved over 1,060 new single-family homes and 192,000 square feet of commercial space. We have successfully collaborated with designers, contractors, and other City departments to streamline the path to plan approval, saving the City and developers time and money through an efficient and effective process.

Benefit: Other plan checks for the City that HR Green staff handle include residential custom homes, commercial sites, residential tracts, and recreational site reviews. All reviews are 100% electronic, with a 100% success rate in meeting plan review schedules.

Our key to success with applicants and stakeholders has been using electronic technology to streamline reviews, working cohesively with the City officials, and taking a proactive approach to problem-solving for a timely turnaround to plan reviews.