Palm Springs continues design planning for Racquet Club Road changes after fire response concerns
Kendall Flynn
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (KESQ) – The City of Palm Springs hosted a community meeting Wednesday to discuss their plans for the Racquet Club Road Reconfiguration Project. The meeting focused on a Fire Response Study conducted by Kimley-Horn.
The project would configure a two-mile corridor from North Palm Canyon Drive along Racquet Club Road to Farrell Drive and Via Escuela. The project would also add bike lanes and reduce traffic to one lane in each direction.
One of the major concerns with the project is the location of Fire Station 3 within the project corridor. The station has the longest average response time of the city’s five stations.
“I have one fire engine taking care of the entire north end,” Palm Springs Fire Chief Paul Alvarado said. “So naturally the times are longer than average of seven over just over seven minutes to get on scene. So that’s already two minutes over than I want to be.”
Alvarado said he joined the community meeting on Wednesday to share his response time data and how the construction would impact crew travel.
“There are some minimal increases depending on which route you were taking,” Alvarado said. “But the longest route that we studied was from Palm Canyon to Via Escuela…they’re looking at a minute and three seconds additional.”
This can be concerning for residents and crews as every second counts in emergencies.
“A house can flashover in as little as three to five minutes. Survivability is very low,” Alvarado said. “If someone is having a heart attack and their heart stops for every minute, their ability to survive, that decreases 10% for every minute.”
As the reconfiguration project is still in the designing phase, with construction possibly starting in spring 2026, Alvarado said he’s looking at other changes that could increase the stations response time and make them more efficient.
“There’s always a way around it, and you know what we’re looking at…expanding this fire station so we can accommodate more people, more resources here and we’ll be able to meet that challenge,” Alvarado said.
Stay with News Channel 3 to hear from city officials and Palm Springs Fire about the project.