The owner of Indio’s Empire Polo Club, home of the Coachella and Stagecoach music festivals, has ambitious plans for roughly 218 aces it owns near the famous facility. The goal is to create a mixed-use development it says would be a new focal point for the east Coachella Valley, consisting of homes, restaurants, shops and possibly even a sports venue.
The development would further transform the character of a mostly pastoral landscape that has long served as the epicenter of the valley’s equestrian culture. It also could bring new jobs and create a major anchor for shopping and entertainment in a section of the Coachella Valley that is less developed than areas to the west.
Riverside County’s Planning Commission on June 4 unanimously voted to change the land-use designation for the site — which sprawls across both sides of Jackson Street on the south side of its intersection with Avenue 52 — from one limited to agricultural uses to one that would allow for the kind of mixed-use development that is envisioned…