Coachella Status Uncertain As Indio Delays Contract With Goldenvoice

By Andrea Domanick Mon., Oct. 17 2011 at 7:00 AM

Vickie Chang

Will Coachella 2012 keep you waiting?

See also: Whew! Coachella 2012 Back On As Planned

The city of Indio has postponed signing a contract with Coachella festival promoter and organizer Goldenvoice, following pressure from the neighboring city of La Quinta for an environmental review of the popular music and arts festival. The festival thus faces the possibility of delay from its April 13, 2012 start date.

The Indio City Council voted for the postponement earlier this month, following La Quinta City Council's request for them to delay approval of the contract. La Quinta wants Indio and Goldenvoice to conduct an assessment under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to evaluate the environmental impact of traffic, noise and pollution generated by the festival, owing to the fact that its length will be doubled this year, to two weekends in April. If Indio complies, the review process could extended well beyond Coachella's scheduled opening date.

As Coachella has grown over the past dozen years, so has the affluent town of La Quinta, whose population of about 40,000 has nearly doubled in the last decade. The city now borders two sides of Indio's Empire Polo Field festival grounds and has become a popular place to stay for the 60,000 to 75,000 people who attend Coachella daily. Already wary of the wild partying from attendees with vacation rentals in the area, many residents of La Quinta were not pleased to learn that Coachella had extended its length, hence the demand for an Environmental Impact Review under CEQA, whose environmental protection policies apply to Coachella. CEQA is a self-governing statute, so while La Quinta can't actually force Indio to conduct the review, the former does have the right to seek its enforcement through private litigation if Indio doesn't address La Quinta's concerns to its satisfaction.

According to the Desert Sun -- which covers Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley -- at an October 4 La Quinta City Council meeting, Coachella patrons were described by some locals as "the people who destroy our environment." Barbara Bishop, the president of a La Quinta homeowners association, claimed that 80 percent of the community's security incidents occur during Coachella and the popular Stagecoach Festival, usually held the following weekend at the Polo Field.

Both La Quinta and Indio have complained about the festival in the past -- trespassing and "riding horses without permission" are among their grievances, KCET notes. The new contract, however, gives Indio less of a reason to complain -- and to want to conduct the lengthy review -- than its much wealthier neighbor: in addition to expanding Coachella to two weekends (April 13-15 and April 20-22) and adding an additional day to the Stagecoach Festival (April 27-29), the new contract would give Indio a portion of ticket sales earnings from both festivals. Indio City Manager Dan Martinez said at the Oct. 4 meeting that the new contract includes a series of penalties and fines to help reduce environmental disturbances, but La Quinta officials said that wasn't enough.

Tags:

Andrea Domanick, Coachella, Coachella 2012, festivals, Goldenvoice, Indio, La Quinta, Stagecoach

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Trinedadhowell

what about traffic date palm construction gene autry construction indian ave construction what are they building the queen mary they been working for years traffic backed up to mounton ave on varner rd stop sign by dump how about a yield sign traffic light solar what a joke

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Thank you for writing this post as it has been educational and most enjoyable!

Update Please

LA Weekly, this story needs an official update. La Quinta dropped its case. Rock on, everybody.

la_weakly

Good news, in a 4-0 vote indio is signing the contract http://www.facebook.com/suppor...

Scott

I'm sure if the city of La Quinta was able to get a piece of the pie directly, they would be happy. I bet you that if the shop owners and hotel managers and Restaurant owners were to go to the city council meeting, they would be in favor of the concerts continuing as usual. These concerts bring in so much money for the desert communities and those monies translate into taxes for these city's. These taxes go to the city to fund so many projects that these concerned people probably don't even know about. Take away Coachella.... Their goes those monies.

Ease

As if there hasn't been enough money and development spread around that area since Coachella started blowing up. Hotels sell out months in advance or hike up rates to $250+/night, all folks renting out their homes do it for several hundred if not thousands of dollars for a Thursday through Monday stay and 30 packs of beer are sold out at multiple locations. Not to mention more pop up stores that appear for the weekend ( a few glow stores this year, even though the selection was shit - No LED hula hoops? )

And now environmental pollution? If it only takes 2 weeks (primarily just weekends) out of your mundane life in the desert and you feel the need to get another slice of the pie that has already brought you a Costco, Walmart and Sam's Club next door to each other? Not to mention you have Chipotle now and look like South Orange County as opposed to a washed up desert retirement community.

Love the mindset of wanting to cash in just because you see numbers that say millions of dollars, so therefore you deserve some of that because you had loud neighbors for a weekend. THEY EVEN RODE YOUR NEIGHBORS HORSE TOO WITH OUT PERMISSION!

Crack21

MONSTER MASSIVE AGAIN??

Drock28

My family being home owners down the street from Coachella, and being inside La Quinta limits, I can see La Quinta's grievances. La Quinta bears a vast majority of the people/traffic/etc. during Coacehlla, while Indio has virtually no hotels or places to stay. You don't even exit off the freeway in Indio. Yet they reap all the benefits because the Polo Grounds is technically just inside their city limits. La Quinta is just trying to get a (deservedly) fair share of the money pie.

Dclark73

Just another attempt by the stubborn old dinosaurs of the Coachella Valley to keep the desert from growing in a new direction! Where was the study for the 1000s of cars and people for the Bob Hope Classic held at the failed Silver Rock golf course in the city of La Quinta. No one complains when it comes to golf! Wake up people. GoldenVoice brings Music to the desert. That brings people with money and lots of it to the Coachella valley. To spend in your cities. They don't stay here for free. Even in these tough times Coachella still sells out. I hope you take the time to put down your golf clubs and take a look in the mirror. If this were golf there wouldn't be a problem!