College of the Desert officials postponed their presentation at Thursday’s Palm Springs City Council meeting due to scheduling conflicts.
According to city spokeswoman Amy Blaisdell, Superintendent Martha Garcia ran into a scheduling conflict and was unable to attend Thursday night’s meeting to discuss the West Valley Campus. The discussion will be postponed to a later date, according to Blaisdell.
Garcia and other school officials were supposed to update the council on recent developments. The West Valley Campus, which will be located in Palm Springs, has been in development since 2004 and raised almost $1 billion in tax revenue for construction, according to Blaisdell. That campus is still in the planning phase.
“In order to have a robust and thorough discussion regarding this important community issue, we believe the public would be better served by rescheduling this item to another meeting date when we can better accommodate the schedule of Dr. Garcia,” said City Manager Justin Clifton.
“We realize how important this topic is to the public and apologize for any inconvenience. We will notify the public when this item is rescheduled.”
According to Blaisdell, concerns have been raised concerning the West Valley Campus and the recent abandonment of plans to build Roadrunner Motors, the college’s automotive training facility, in Cathedral City.
Development of the old location, adjacent to the Cathedral City Auto Center, was canceled in October by the college due to high projected costs. In January, the school announced that the original location was under consideration alongside two other new alternatives.
In the same January announcement by COD spokeswoman Jessica Enders, officials reaffirmed their support to build campuses in Palm Desert, Cathedral City, Mecca/Thermal, Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs.
“These facilities are critical to the city’s future and the scope and scale of the Palm Springs campus has been more than 17 years in the making and may constitute the most significant development of higher education opportunities in the West Valley for decades to come,” said Clifton.