Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

s recording. My screen recording. In progress. Oh, good. Okay, that's what I needed. Thank you. Good evening. Welcome to the. Tuesday, January 13th, 2026 regular meeting of the Palm Springs Planning Commission. Can I have a report on the post or a roll call, please? Chair Wernick here. Vice chair Len here.

Carl Baker. Not yet. Commissioner. Miller. Present. Commissioner Murphy is excused. Commissioner Rottman here, Commissioner Morrell here. And Alternate Hernandez here. Okay. May I have a report on the posting of the agenda, please? Yes, Madam chair. The agenda was available for public access at the City Hall exterior bulletin board, the planning services counter and online in accordance with the city's policies and procedures. By 9 p.m. on Thursday, January 8th. Thank you. Before, can I have a motion to accept the agenda? So moved. I'll second.

All in favor? Aye.

Okay. At this time, we're at public comment. This has been set aside for members of the public to address the Planning Commission on the consent calendar and other agenda items and other items in our subject matter jurisdiction. Please note that we can't take action on any item that hasn't been posted. Each speaker has three minutes. We have basically one item on the agenda tonight, which is a new business item. But we will take and generally we would take public comments now, but as it's the only item on the agenda, the public can address us now. Or if they prefer, at after the staff report when it might be better to make public comment. So if they're members of the public who want to comment, I have one other item. It's come to my attention that there were, I think, was it 70 some comments submitted that appear to have gone to a email address that was other than the city's, and we didn't receive them, but for the applicant or the person or the parties who sent the comments, we want you to know that a spreadsheet has been given to the commission that contain each of the comments that was sent to that, to that other address. So they are before the commission this evening. And just I want to note that Commissioner Baker is joining us. Welcome. Okay. Public comment. Is there anyone who would like to comment now?

Madam chair, we have several several members of the public online. No one has their hand raised, so we will certainly check in with everyone who is watching on zoom to take your comment. Following the staff report during public comment following this. Seeing no members of the public who would like to comment now, we will close the public comment period and move to the consent calendar. What is before us is the approval of the minutes of December 9th, 2025. Are there any comments or is there a motion? Yes.

I have just comments. It looks like there's a bit of a maybe just some wording missing on the item regarding the 16 court pickleball on the conditions, the three conditions that the Planning Commission set. Number two just appears to be some grammatical issues that you might want to look at it. I think the gist of it is all there, but it needs a few verbs and things. So do you. Do you have recommendations for changes or do you?

I didn't I didn't try to rephrase the sentence. It's pretty easy. There's just, you know, some some things missing. It will trigger a review of some, you know, something to that effect. Madam chair, I think if the council so wishes, the Planning Commission so wishes you can direct in your motion that staff do a QA, QC check and correct any grammatical issues that need correcting. Is that your motion? That is my motion. Is there a second? Second? Would you call the roll please? Commissioner Miller yes. Vice chair. Elaine. Yes, chair. Wermke. Yes, Commissioner.

Baker. Yes, Commissioner Rottman. I can't vote on this. I wasn't in attendance. Commissioner Morrell. Yes. Can I ask you to turn the volume up if possible? Thank you.

Okay. We have no public hearings. We have no unfinished business. Oh, we've called the roll. Yes. No unfinished business. So item four A is the item that is before us. It is a request by O2 architecture on behalf of the property owner for a major development permit to expand and remodel an existing hotel and restaurant on a 4.23 acre site located at 1973. North Palm Canyon Drive, zone C-1. Can we have a staff report, please?

Chair, if I could, I think this would be the appropriate time to make any disclosures, and I did. I was contacted by Unite Here Local 11, and I did speak to them by cell phone. Thank you. Good evening. Yes.

Good evening, chair and commission members. The prot is located on a 4.23 acre parcel along North Palm Canyon Drive. The lot is split zoned, meaning there are two zoning designations on one parcel. The pink area above is zoned C-1 commercial and the yellow area is zoned R3 Multifamily residential. The site was formerly a Days Inn hotel with 170 rooms and is currently vacant. The project is proposing a remodel and expansion to a 179 room hotel. The project complies with the zoning designation and the general plan. The orange areas highlighted above indicate the buildings and portions of the buildings that are proposed to be demolished. This is the proposed site plan. Building A is an existing hotel, renovated and expanded from 53 rooms to 59 rooms. Building B, along the west elevation is an existing back of house building, which is proposed to be rehabilitated and remain its current use. Building C on the south is a new two story is a proposed two storey hotel constructed with 72 rooms. Building D in the middle is an existing 29 key one story hotel, proposed to be rehabilitated and expanded with a second story and building E the top right. It'd be a new restaurant and lobby. The applicant is proposing new landscape, new drought tolerant landscape throughout the site and parking lot area, as well as additional landscape along North Palm Canyon Drive. Landscape will be reviewed by the Architectural Review Committee at that meeting. The

project proposes. I'm sorry. The project requires 171 parking spaces. However, only 168 are provided. An administrative minor modification application which is reviewed and and reviewed, which is reviewed and approved by the director, will be submitted. EV charging stations are not required per the. Palm Springs zoning code. However, the applicant has stated that they are proposing to add approximately four EV charging stations to the site. A vehicle Miles traveled report was provided by the applicant. It is indicated that the project will generate approximately 20:04 a.m. peak hour trips and 30 4 p.m. peak hour trips, based on the City of Palm Springs traffic analysis guidelines, a full traffic study is not required for the proposed project, and the project will not result in adverse traffic operations. So all the buildings will consist of flat roofs with screen mechanical equipment located on top. However, building A will be the only building with solar panels located on the roof, which will serve the entire site. So the following slides are the building elevations of building A, B, C, D, and E. Sorry, I'll go back. The maximum height of buildings A, C, and D are 23ft, which includes the mechanical screen for the rooftop. Equipment. Buildings B and E are approximately 14 to 16ft tall. The color, material and overall design of the elevations will also be reviewed by the

Architect Review Committee. Above is a rendering of the proposed project once complete. The staff. Sorry, the project is considered categorically exempt pursuant to section 15332 of the Sequa guidelines as a class 32 infill infill development project, due to the following reasons. The project is consistent with the applicable General Plan and all applicable General Plan policies, as well as the applicable zoning designation and regulations. The project site is less than five acres in size and located in an urbanized area within the city limit. The project site was previously developed and does not have any value as a habitat for endangered, rare or threatened species. Approval of the project would not result in any significant effects relating to traffic noise, air quality or water quality, and the site can be adequately served by all required utilities and public services. Public services. Yes. So staff is recommending approval the application subject to the attached conditions of approval. That concludes my report. The applicant and property owner are available for any questions.

Are there any questions of staff? Yes. Go ahead. Yeah. Thank you. I just had two questions for staff and I have a couple questions for the applicant. But for staff, one of the building B plans says it's an historic building. I didn't see that referenced anywhere else. And I just wondered what the history is. Why why is that building significant over the rest of the property?

So there was a portion of the property, and I think the applicant can perhaps elaborate on this better than I may be able to, but as I understand it, there was a historic hotel or structure on the site going back, I believe, to the 1930s, and then the rest of the site was developed over time, sort of around it. So one of the original structures from that original development, I believe, on the west side of the property remained. It, of course, is not really in its original state, and it did go to the Historic Site Preservation Board, who did sign off on this plan, understanding that there isn't a lot of historic merit that that is retained in that building, but the applicant may be able to elaborate on some of the interesting history when they speak.

Great. And my other question had to do has to do with Ada. There aren't any elevators in any of the buildings on the site, and. I, I reviewed the Ada guidelines and I guess it's not necessary, but I wondered some of the some of the language in the Ada guidelines to me is a little vague. So I just wondered if you got if that came up. Or maybe that's a question for ownership, why they don't have elevators, even for staff members or for people with a lot of luggage or baby carriages or whatever. It would seem like a convenience. And one of the buildings is brand new, and I'm not sure if that triggers Ada or not, that it's a new building.

So our our interpretation is that it complies with Ada requirements. I think you raise an operational question that the applicant can speak to in terms of how they plan to work around that and what their staffing plan is. All right. Thanks. Commissioner Mueller. Yeah, Alex, I looked very carefully at the staff report. Do you know the difference in square footage between the current Rick's Restaurant and the new restaurant? You've you've approached it. It's an expansion. But I was just curious how many square feet has it changed? Or how many seats has it changed?

I actually I don't know the difference. I know the difference in the overall project. So the difference in floor area between the existing project and the proposed project is 31,803ft.

Okay. That doesn't help me with the restaurant. No, I'm just trying to, I think, solidify the city's position on the issue. We know there's 72 additional rooms. That's the project in that regard. More over and above what is currently essentially vested on the site for impacts. But it was curious as to the restaurant size. It looks like it's slightly larger, but not significantly so. So it'd be nice to have that figured just to help solidify the argument.

Are there any other questions for staff? Yes, Commissioner Orlan.

I have just received the spreadsheet with the email messages that we didn't get and in advance. And so I've skimmed through them to look at the the concerns on the whole, as I identify all of the. Writers. Were asking that the project not be approved until we do a full EIR. Or at least and some of them suggest a traffic analysis. And the other two issues that seem to have been raised were the parking adequacy and the nearness to homes. Most of these was quite clear on categorical exemptions. And and the staff report has gone through. And thank you for that. And Donna touched on each one of these and why this project qualifies for categorical exemption. The one thing that is always a little bit squishy to me to understand, I'd like to ask engineering about. And that is when people request a traffic analysis. They're there seems to be a common perception that any increase in traffic means that we need to do a traffic analysis. That is not the finding here. And I think I understand why, but I wonder if we could have the in your explain to us a little bit more detail why no traffic analysis is warranted here.

Hello. Good afternoon, commissioners Rick Harris, engineering department. Whee were putting our conditions of approval together for this project, we did not see the need for having a traffic scoping analysis, which would be the first thing which would determine whether or not a VMT analysis would even need to be performed, being that it was an existing hotel and the existing services around it, the expansion that they're proposing, what's already existing on Palm Canyon as far as traffic related devices, what's already been installed, we did not see the need for the scoping analysis, but the applicant on their own decided to do a VMT analysis. The VMT analysis was done based on. They did two different tables and they did one with what's being proposed in additional rooms and also as a project as a whole. And in either case, total combined. It did not meet the qualifications for an loss study, which is a level of service which would be the next level after a VMT for us to to analyze or to send to Caltrans. Because this is on State Highway 111, it's not on city right of way. It did not meet the warrant to even pursue an loss study, because it is less than 100 peak hour trips. So the loss was not even required. Then it continued on to the VMT and based on the findings of the VMT, the VMT. Did not expect or introduce any substantial new findings that would increase any kind of level of traffic to the to the area, and it was considered

local serving and may be presumed that have less than significant VMT anything. So it really does not even in the the VMT analysis that they did, it doesn't really yield or warrant any further analysis. Now that's kind of where we ended our portion of the traffic when we were doing our conditions. Okay. Thank you. And just for my own reference, how many vehicle trips a day are on that section of highway one? 11? Oh, I don't know. You mean as a total. Is it safe to say tens of thousands? Oh, probably. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. We don't we don't.

Seem to me like kind of a de minimis impact. But I just wanted to yeah. The traffic. I could certainly, you know, find that for you and send it to the commissioners at some point if you'd like. I don't believe that we do traffic counts on highway 111. The state probably does. So we could probably find that out. But you're probably right. It's probably okay. Probably pretty up there. So okay. Thank you. Let's see. You had questions.

I'm I'm I mixed I had some questions and some are for the I think more for the applicant. But hold on let me make sure anything. Got it. No I think those are all that I had for staff. Thank you. Madam Chair. Can we go back to the question asked earlier by Commissioner Scott? We have the response for him. Certainly, yes.

So the proposed building E, which is the restaurant and lobby, would be 5736ft d the existing for the restaurant was 5523ft, with the lobby of 1346ft in size. So it actually shows a reduction with the lobby added on. Correct? Correct. Thank you. Yes.

Yeah. Just a quick question. One of the some of the letters that we received talked about the number of compact spaces. Can you tell me, number one, what the code allows in terms of percentage contact compact versus standard. And then do you have a breakdown. And if not I'll ask the applicant that part.

So per the code it's 10% of the overall parking required. Parking is allowed to be compact spaces. As far as the numbers go I've. Why don't you why don't we come back to that. Yeah. And I'll ask the next question. This is this is of the planning director. A number of the questions talked about the residential adjacency. What should residential owners expect if they're adjacent to commercial development that's being rehabbed?

Sure. I mean, I think along this entire corridor you have and I know that this is a conversation thate had in other recent developments in this exact part of of North Palm Canyon. But we are in a mixed use area here along a major corridor where we do have commercial uses along this section of North Palm Canyon. And that does mean that there will be an interface between commercial and residential uses. Certainly. I think in this instance, while we're seeing, you know, overall the number of hotel rooms increase on the site. In no instance are the buildings being located closer to the property lines than have existed historically on the site today. So the buildings, while some are being torn down and reconstructed in kind. Some are. There are additional rooms going in. The distance between the property lines is remaining the same. I think we can certainly look through this and through the landscape plan that will go to Arc at if additional measures are needed for screening or other types of other measures like that. But my response would be we do have a mix of commercial and residential uses along this part of the city, and in this case, we are not exacerbating any any existing condition.

Sorry, I got it. And the other is a landscape question regarding regarding the parking and parking reductions, how many trees are being installed, what size are they and what size are the tree wells, and do you know that they're adequate to support the trees? I don't believe we have that level of detail yet. I think that's a conversation that we can have with the applicant. And certainly I think the Planning Commission can give direction on that landscape plan as it moves forward. As it's one that I wanted to ask as we're looking at both parking reduction or whether the coverage is sufficient. So.

Correct. Yeah. And I and I would say because I know this is a conversation we're having in multiple capacities, that certainly we would look to make sure that the wells are large enough to support the health of the trees, because I know that's historically a problem that we've had in our parking lots. Yes. So, Madam Chair, once again. From staff, oh, you were going to come back with an answer? Yes. Going back to Commissioner Rodman's question, 40% of the parking spaces are allowed to be compact. The first 20 spaces are to be standard sizes according to section 9306 of fire code. 40%. In what percent are.

40% are allowed to be compact spaces. But the the first 20 spaces are to be standard sizes. So they comply with that requirement. Correct. You're saying so they comply with the code requirements that say up to 40% of the spaces are permitted to be compact. What I think Edward is saying is if this didn't have the number of spaces that it has, if it was a smaller amount of required parking, it's 40% as long as at least 20 are provided at regular size. Does that make sense? Okay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I, as usual, have forgotten one of my questions. There's a note on the drawings that say that the restaurant, bar, kitchen and patio are going to be handled in a deferred submittal that will be reviewed and approved by the building official. If it's interior space, that's great. That's fine. And I see that we do have the building, I guess at least preliminary design preliminarily designed on the site plan and with elevations so that we know lot coverage and setback and things like that. What I do want to confirm is I'mt sure if the. The bar and the restaurant are open to the public, and if we know how many seats will be in that, because that ties into the parking and we want to make sure. So. So what is it? Is it I don't typically see ths much of a project deferred for later submittal. And it might just be that I haven't paid enough attention. But I want to make sure that we have all the information that we need in order to make the planning related decisions regarding parking.

So that decision is made by the planning department, not the building official. So I'm not sure what the applicant is referring to with that, but those are typically the decision of the planning department. We may. Ask the applicant for clarification on what they mean by that. From our perspective, the plan before you is based on the information that has been provided to us and the assumptions that we are making based on what they have provided us in terms of how that's being programed. Okay. Thank you.

Any other questions? At this point, public hearing is open. The applicant has two minutes. Hi everyone. This is Andrew Brown. Apologies I was on mute. We also have Lance O'Donnell in the room. Probably hand it off to Lane to speak first. And then I can clarify any follow up questions, including operational questions. And we will ask questions at the end of the public hearing. Perfect. Thank you.

Good. Good evening, chair and commission and staff. Lance O'Donnell, O2 architecture. Let me just start with a big picture. Well then talk about historic preservation and then we'll get into the specific questions which are which are all good. So big picture. We've got a really great team on this developer from the East Coast from Boston. We've got a great landscape team with Rios Landscape Architects. We've got a great interiors team with Beyond the West, and then we have other consultants that are supporting any number of things, and we've been working on this project for about a year and a half. And so that led into the Historic Site Preservation Board and what kind of resources we had on site. And the interesting thing about this site is it really started in the 1930s. So if you go to the early aerial photos that are outside the council chambers, you can start to see even the earliest images. The aerial photos must have been taken by a biplane with a guy hanging out of the cockpit. That project was there. So this was an early motor inn and the the driveway between the buildings was just like a motor inn. You pulled up right to your front door. So it's it's quite akin to the Ace Hotel project that my office worked on some 20 years ago, where it was an internal motor inn, and everything got pulled out and became more of a resort hotel. These guys were the early adopters of that idea of a resort hotel. Sometime in the 1960s, the interior parking was taken out, it was externalized, and the interior became more of an amenity area. So starting in

1938 with the back building, which we call building B, and if somebody wants to pull up a site plan and kind of point to that. So building B dates back to the the 1930s and it was originally. Can someone point to that? And I just want to apologize. My screen is flicking so I can't look at anything on it, so I do. I have the ability. To point from here. Yes.

Are they all flickering? That's some. Chris, if there's any way of letting people know that our screens are malfunctioning.

I'm pointing, but nothing's happening. So this here is building B, and that dates to the 1930s. There was this area in here that is a landscaped courtyard was the original drive. I came off 111 and you came back in here and there were some bungalows back in here. So we fast forward to the 1950s and when the city was considering where the convention center would go, this was identified by the owner of this property as the potential spot for the convention center. It was probably had something to do with section 14 and working with the tribe to put a convention center on tribal land and or on fee simple land. And out here there was a proposal by Ahmet and Davis. Ahmet and Davis was a quite well known Los Angeles architecture firm. They coined the term and did lots of work in the Googie style. So the idea of Googie roadside architecture was a specialization of Ahmet and Davis, and Ahmet and Davis. Eventually, with the large master plan with the convention center, settled on two buildings that got built. So we have building a up here, which we are maintaining and building what we're calling building D here, which we're maintaining the Historic Site Preservation Board and my office identified a couple of key areas with that had character defining features. And it's really this wall here with the stone wall that's candidate in angle. And this wall here with the stone wall. There's some internal walls and there's some really great guardrails that wrap around the

project that have some nice angles to them. And those are all being preserved. And insofar as the new buildings that we're proposing, we are trying to have the same level of detail. We're not trying to mimic the historic properties. So there's no confusion about what was historic and what's new. But what we're doing is we're trying to create a cohesive project that's tied together by these resort amenities in these internal courtyards. One of the other things that happened with this project was there was a constriction at the back of the project that didn't allow the fire department to actually drive around the project, which created some problems for us. And so we started working with the fire department to make sure we've got good circulation around. So insofar as there is additional traffic or there's additional trips generated or additional parking areas, this site will act a lot more fluidly than it does today. Today, you can only pull in and pull back out from the same parking lots. Now you can loop around depending upon time of day or where you're heading, whether you're heading south into town or north out of town, there's just the the circulation on site circulation is much improved, as well as getting rid of Rick's restaurant, which always was a little bit of an oddball, sitting kind of too close to North Palm Canyon Drive, not having a great presence, but, you know, having a real community serving function was something that the development team looked at and said, let's make sure we have a restaurant that's open to the community and community serving, because this is going to be operated year round. And so we know we're going to have times of the year when festivals are going on or tennis tournaments and things, and it's packed. But there are other times of the year when the residents in

and around this area can walk over here and enjoy a great little meal. The restaurant and lobby are slightly smaller than Rick's Restaurant combined, so we have slightly less square footage. We probably will have the same seat count as Rick's. And in this tabulation up here, there is a tabulation that accounts for 100 seats that are proposed. So that worked into the parking count, the parking count that then translated into parking provided is all tabulated based on number. Number of keys, number of seats in the hotel, and then the staff parking requirements. So all those are tabulated in there. We are deficient by three spaces. We could easily stick those three spaces in the front here. We've got some parking here that is convenient to the restaurant and drop off and those really busy nights. But what we said to ourselves was, look, let's provide more landscape buffer. Let's give this thing a really wonderful North Palm Canyon Street presence. It does have a challenge. And the challenge really is that as you're coming into town, you're still probably traveling 50 miles an hour. And so we wanted to have transitions here that had good, clean sightlines into the project. We weren't creating any nuisances. So that's why there's a really nice deceleration into the property here and then down into the parking lot. And then we've eliminated some of the the in and out park or drive aisles that occur at Rick's. I think there's at least two, if not three down there. And it's just it's it is just a confluence of a lot of, I don't know, just

just confusion. And so we're we're streamlining that. We've got the drop off, we've got the porte cochere, we have parking, we have the loop around the number of compact spaces. It's a good question. So the reason we went to compact spaces is primarily along this edge is so that we could get more of a landscape buffer. Here we have minimum drive aisles that were required by the fire department. And we wanted to make sure that we're a good neighbor to the undeveloped parcel that's to the south. And so we could reduce that. We could go to full parking spaces. As an architect, when we look at compact spaces, we're not compacting it for the width, we're compacting it for the depth. And we pick up extra depth here. We pick up extra ability to plant trees and to screen at that edge there. So we've got some flexibility in here. We if the commission insisted that we add those spaces in so that we were fully parked by code, we could do that. We would just be eliminating some trees and we'd be doing some things that we feel as a team benefit the project and benefit the community. Just from a sight line point of view. But I know I've got Zander Brown, the from the ownership team here, and I'm sure he can talk about some of the operational questions.

Where are we? How are we doing on time? I think what I'd like to do is bring him on during the because you'll have five minutes for rebuttal, but we actually will extend that for questions. And their questions I think we want answered. So I'd rather do it that way okay. A comment. Yes. Are there members of the public who wish to comment either here or on the internet? If you're here, would you come up? Please sign.

Your name to those on the internet. We are for those joining online. We'll come to you as soon as we're done with any comments here in the chamber. So when you come up, please identify your full name for the record. And you have two three minutes. Control room. Thank you. Hear me? If you could just state that again.

Good evening. My name is Lorelei Patton, and I would like to thank the commission and the commissioner and the planning department and the staff for this evening's meeting. I am a resident of Palm Springs, California. There were a few things that were brought up regarding the traffic, air quality, the neighbors that live around the area, the miles per hour, 50mph. What is it going to impact as far as the noise, the dust, the renovation? And will the people that are currently going to be visiting, will they be able to walk that sidewalk? Will they be able to ride bikes? I'm not sure, but yeah, the cars drive way too fast. And the impact reports and you guys already mentioned.

If you're still speaking, if you speak into the mic. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else in the chambers seeing none if you'd go to the people online. Sure. Our next speaker is Charlie Cano. Charlie, you can unmute yourself and you have three minutes.

Hello. Good evening commissioners. My name is Charlie Cano with Unite Here local 11, our Los Angeles office as at 464 South Lucas Avenue, calling to express our concerns regarding the 1973 North Palm Canyon Drive hotel project. We urge you not to move forward with the project without a full environmental review, including a careful review of construction, noise, dust, air quality, a full VMT analysis and parking impacts. Our union represents 800 workers who live all over Riverside County, including in Palm Springs, and who work at hospitality operations around Southern California. Hospitality development like this one will outlive and outlast many of us and needs to be done sensitively. That's why I was frankly surprised to see this project move forward with a class 32 categorical exemption. To grant a categorical exemption, a series of findings must be made, including that approval of the project would not result in any significant effects related to traffic noise, air quality, air quality or water quality. The project would increase the number of hotel rooms by over 60%, and is admittedly an an increase in the sort of standard you know, of the project. It's much more going to be, I think, much more of a higher end resort type project. Yet the project staff report claims that the impacts of the increased rooms are are, quote, considered minimal. Additionally, while I appreciate the VMT study, which was I believe only posted yesterday, I. I don't buy that this is local serving folks are going to come from out of town to do this. And so we need the full a full VMT analysis and the kind of mitigations that will encourage people to to both employees and and guests to get to the to get to the site and increase the amount of of of of vehicle miles travels as little as possible. Demolition will also only happen only 30ft from an existing residential complex, but there's minimal discussion

or analysis of construction emissions, what equipment is going to be used, or the project's construction and operation, air quality and greenhouse gas emissions, which are often estimated using the California Emissions Estimator model. Demolition is also likely to create noise, something that might be exacerbated by overlapping construction activities for an adjacent condo development. But there's no noise and air quality studies. And this just doesn't just this doesn't just implicate Sequa. The required code findings for the development permit require that the project is, quote, not detrimental to adjacent properties or residents, and there are no potential significant environmental impacts, or they have reduced to less than significant measures because of mitigation measures. So I urge the city to pause approvals, do these studies, and have a more full environmental review that will allow us to mitigate any potential impacts here. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Julie Bennett. You have permission to speak and you have three minutes.

Hi. Thank you. I basically echo what Charles just said, and I think that the issue is basically everything that he pointed out. There hasn't been enough done to make sure that the environmental studies have been done in. Sorry, I'm trying to find my notes here and I'm okay. So yeah, the the project site is immediately adjacent to existing residences and near another approved development. If construction timelines overlap, residents could experience prolonged noise, dust, traffic, and parking impacts that have not been adequately evaluated. So that is my main concern. Along with the environmental. Issues. And that's it.

Our next speaker is Jordan Sisson. You have three minutes. Thank you so much.

Jordan Sisson I'm a attorney representing Unite Here local 11. My office submitted extensive comments last week. It was the letter that was referenced earlier during this meeting. It indicates why a class 32 exemption is not appropriate here. I want to first thank the commission for their great questions. Obviously, our my letter was read by many of you, and I do appreciate that. I want to start off with making very clear under Sequa class 32 exemption is not appropriate unless it falls squarely within the exemption. And there are some issues that make it ineligible for class 32. That includes that it has to be consistent with zoning designation and zoning rules. Plus, it can't have significant impacts on traffic noise and air quality. If a project has these issues, class 32 is not appropriate. My remaining time I want to identify some of the key points in my letter that explains why class 32 is not appropriate. First, air noise impacts. The project is demolishing a building 30ft from a residential use. Residents are sensitive receptors. Construction activities have heavy duty equipment. Furthermore, you have a 60 condo unit project just south of the site, which may have overlapping emissions. Air and noise impacts are squarely within the purview of what is and is not appropriate for a class 32. The airport provides no air emissions modeling, no construction noise, no no noise impact analysis. So frankly, there is no substantial evidence to say that this project will not have impacts. My next point is the applicable zoning. There's a handful of issues where it shows the project's not consistent regarding the open space. The code requires 45%. The plans indicate that they're using some of their paving areas to make that 45%. The code is very clear that paving and driveway is not open space. You can look at the code provisions, specifically section 21 or

91 .00. subsection ten. It clearly defines open space to not include driveways and parking areas. Additionally, the parking issues, as you heard, they're providing 188 spaces. The plan show 165. Furthermore, they are showing 82 compact spaces, which is about 50% of their proposed parking. The code says 40%. So obviously there's some distinction there. Additional parking shade, which was not mentioned. The code requires 50% based off of their plans. You're looking at about 40 to 42% of their northern, and their southern parking is going to have shade covered. That doesn't meet code requirements. So again, that is within the purview of what a class 32 must comply with. Furthermore, on the VMT. And this is really the last point I wanted to make. The VMT study that they call it is really a memo. And the memo says that the project does not require VMT study because largely it's considered local serving. It will not substantially induce vehicle travel, that it might be actually neutral or reduce vmts. And it's consistent with OPR guidance. We respectfully disagree with these. First, the city's own VMT guidelines has no VMT exemption for local serving hotels. Earlier, there was mentioned about a de minimis concept. That concept is.

Your time is up, your three minutes is up. If I could just quickly wrap up this one last. Point, we have to defer to the Planning Commission chair as to whether she'll. Allow it. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much, Madam Chair. That de minimis is really the small project which is 110 vehicle miles traveled. This project is nearly four times that. This project is called a rebranded resort hotel. That's not local serving. We respectfully ask you to deny the project. Thank you so much, Madam Chair. Madam chair, we have no additional speakers at this time.

If the applicant would come back up, you have five minutes for rebuttal. But we also want to keep you hee and the project principal for questions. Yeah. I would take any specific questions. From the commission, I think. Xander, would you like to weigh in on just big picture? No. I appreciate everybody's time. And I, particularly the planning commissioners here tonight.

No, Lance, I think you did an excellent job as well as the the planning team here presenting the the project. So nothing to add. Happy to answer any operational questions. Are there questions of the applicant starting with Commissioner Morrell and I'll go down the line.

Hi. Good evening. I had some questions I guess for the applicant, the ownership part. Most of the properties and in fact all the other properties that you guys own or manage are on the East Coast. This seems to be your first property on the West Coast. And I was wondering why why you picked this one, I guess, and why Palm Springs and what your plans are for expanding out here in the future. Xander.

Yes, sir. Thank you very much for the question. It goes without saying, but it is worth saying Palm Springs is a is a remarkable place. Not not lost on us on the East Coast. It's rich with culture and history, and I think just as much as its history and culture is relevant, I think the future and really the present of Palm Springs is equally relevant for for many of the same reasons and some very refreshing and healthy new reasons. So it's always it's always been on our radar. Our team is comprised of a handful of very experienced developers who, through various points in their career, have invested in the state of California throughout the West Coast. We're familiar with with investing in the West Coast, and have made it a point to be very present in the market. We spend, we spend, you know, many, many weeks a year in Palm Springs specifically, I would say we we're excited to make a very long term investment here. Our our investment horizons are always extremely long term. We build lasting product and we intend to own product for for very long time and make an impact in the communities in which we invest in a really healthy, symbiotic way. So we intend to to try to do that in Palm Springs as a good steward and a good citizen of this property and of this city.

And you mentioned that you spend many, many days here. Do you own a homes here, or are any of the principals, residents of Palm Springs? Not not yet sir. Maybe, maybe, maybe one day we'd be fortunate enough to.

And who would be? Who's going to be watching this property for you? Just who's going to be the day to day person and. How involved will they be in the property? I guess what I'm getting at is I don't want to drive by and look at a vacant piece of land for the next year or two.

No, sir. As Lance mentioned, we have a we have a really full and robust team on on this project, stewarding it forward on a daily basis. Lance and his team at O2 architects have have been instrumental in informing key decisions around the local neighborhood and the city and the constituency. We will have full time management of both construction as well as highly professional management of the operation on a go forward basis. We are incredibly hands on owners and operators of assets, and we are deeply involved in the success of all of our properties. This property would be no different. Success only happens when you work well with the local community. That's the nature of hotels. They thrive on their public areas. The public perception recommendations of local residents for family members coming to stay, for friends. Coming to stay. Word of mouth. Restaurants. Employees of the hotel. They are local economic engines and they take daily attention and care. And we take that responsibility incredibly seriously.

Xander maybe mentioning the partnership with the restaurant. Yeah, we we we would intend to work with a local restaurant operator. In fact, we've signed an agreement with the local restaurant operator who's been very highly regarded and look forward to finalizing that that arrangement. The restaurant is absolutely for locals. It will be a tremendous quality at an affordable price.

And how soon are you ready to start construction? Do you have your financing in place? Are you funded now? Assuming you get all the necessary approvals? We are working through the machinations around our our capitalization. We have no contingencies. We are ready to proceed. We do need to go through the rest of the approval process, but we do not anticipate any delays as a result of any potential financing we may take on as a result of this project. Okay. Thank you. That's it for me. Thank you. Sir. Commissioner Rothman, do you have questions?

Yeah, for the operator. Commissioner Merrill brought up about the elevators. And just from an operational point of view, you do have potentially guests with a lot of luggage. You have maid service with laundry servicing the second floor. Why do none of the buildings have at least a freight elevator?

Yes, sir. Thank you for the question. The hotel has operated without elevators to date, and it would not be our first two story property. That we operate without elevators certainly does lead to some operational challenges, but we believe we've addressed those adequately with Lance O'Donnell and his architecture and our design teams. We've provided housekeeping closets throughout the second floors of the properties to the extent there are two floors, and we've provided. Sufficient equal room product on both second and first floors, there's a whole host of reasons why folks may prefer one over the other. It's one of the things we deal with in many of our hotels. We're well equipped to to deal with it and feel that our architectural plan here satisfies all of our operational and guest facing concerns with regards to that issue.

Okay, Lance, can we talk a little bit about the design? Can we pull up some elevations? And so just as a comment, the submittal was pretty muted in terms of colors, muted grays and beiges. Can you give us an indication of what really is going to happen with the colors and the design of the building? Is that me? Nice. Okay.

So now. Well, I've created a monster here. So the. Upper left hand corner is the original Armet and Davis elevation. So that's east facing currently behind the lobby check in. And is that. That is she I can't. See those of us who can't see it A01.

208201 okay, so the Met and Davis original hotel facade has an integral color stone in it. And so the palette of materials for the entire property was selected off of referencing that stone and having complementary finishes throughout. So it is really about desert towns, not bright white colors, but desert muted colors. And again, these are elevations that are shown absent of landscaping. So the abundance of landscaping, both on the patios and in the courtyards and on the parking, the parking areas, you know, give an extra layer to it, but it should feel very desert appropriate. And and native in its, in its appearance.

Have you actually selected a color palette, the colors and stuff or. Yeah, the colors are. If they're not shown, I don't know if they're included in here, a palette of materials. I think it was submitted but not included. So it's part of the the arc submittal. Okay. And the colors on that were just tan, stucco and white and various browns. Yeah. So the colors that you.

See on the screen are reflective of the colors that will be chosen off. White would be the brightest color, but tans and browns again mimicking the existing stone. So we've got this wonderful palette of stone that's quite varied in its color and texture. And we're taking that, and we're just moving it across the project so that there's not something that feels out of place with what was there originally. Was as the historic building, which is building C, is that right?

Building A. Building B, and building D, so if I go back. So so is there any designation in terms of the colors that needed to be maintained from the original or. That's not part of the approval? We did do. A historic study. We we had a consultant on board that did an extensive report, and that report is available through staff if you want to read it. And it's fascinating reading just just the history of this property. So I would. Yeah.

Request that it be made available to all the commissioners. In addition to that. Yes. The Ahmet and Davis colors were consistent with the stone. So very desert tone colors that reference the stone. And we've not deviated from that. The 1938 building. It's hard to know what colors it actually was. Only black and white photos exist only. Yeah, the stark reference isn't really clear on exactly what colors they were using. One could, you know, imagine that as a roadside piece of architecture. It looked kind of like an Adobe, you know, something or other that was popular at the time.

All right. And then on the site plan, I couldn't quite make it out. It looks again, I think it's behind building D. Is that D the one of the existing buildings that's on the south side? It's not the new building but is that D. Yeah. That's.

Yeah. So to the west of that it looks like you're building maybe an outdoor bar and you know so but it's, it's a little confusing because where the sawtooth is on the south side, it looks like as you continue around the left on the, on the east side, it looks like it overlaps the stair. Some going up. What's happening there? Because I couldn't really. Yeah.

Good point. Building D which is if I press this I know it's going to shift. So is there a way I can do the how do I get the highlighter back top button. Top button moves it forward. So. Yeah. Maybe you could point to it. Edward, could you just point to what building D is?

What the Magic hand. All right. So building D is this building here. And this little building is what the commissioner is referring to. We are when we went through the historic site preservation process, we had proposed to demolish this building and the historic Site Preservation Board had a little bit of consternation over that decision, but elected that, you know, you guys move forward. You know, what you're doing through this process. We found some value in repurposing the building. So we're turning it into a bar and we're turning it into some showers and some lockers for the pool itself. So the building is now staying. And it does have that little sawtooth design that appears on the north side and south side. We are providing a walkway through here that that takes out half of one unit. These units are post and beam, and we went to the center of a beam and we took a, you know, a portion of that out so that you can walk from the primary courtyard here, from here, arrival.

Okay. Through the courtyard. And if you're going to building C, which is this building, you would go through a covered walkway down to the building. There's a couple of ways to get there, but that's the preferred path because it's through the amenities section of the project. So there's a heavy line that is that fencing I mean it's it's a little. Yeah. Can I, can I so. The heavy line that you see here. So. I'm curious about.

This heavy line. And then this. One seems to cut across the stair. Oh sorry. Did you hear me that. Yes. Yep. Yeah. I'm just curious what's happening there because I couldn't make it out. Yeah.

So there is a stair that's coming down from the second floor of building D, so again, building D, there's a stair that's coming down here and there's a walkway that's going past that stair. And then through half of that building again, that was Ahmet and Davis designed this being repurposed. The heavy lines are there's some green space in the pool area. The pool is fenced. I can only approximate where the pool is being fenced, but it's being fenced outside of that green line bounded by that building. And then there's an event lawn here that creates the other entry into the pool area. So this whole area here is part of the pool environment. These dark lines are just sitting walls that somebody in the spa could sit on the side and just enjoy the sun and, and the afternoon.

Yeah. This is that line. What is that? This line right here anyway. All right. Yeah. It does again look like there's a CAD designation for that. And it may have just been something that was left on. So it is a heavy line that goes around that. But it's not it doesn't mean anything other than we were getting the square footage. It's probably and it got it was a holdover.

So on building B over on the south side, it seems like there's going to be some sort of catering kitchen going in there at some future application. So my question is related to trash and how is trash actually being handled? It's a challenging site because you only have one trash that I saw next to the restaurant. So trash circulation through the site is a little challenging. Can you talk about that? Yeah.

And you know, obviously good point because it does have to do with noise and things that occur on on site. So we have located the main trash pickup right here behind the restaurant. So everything's behind CMU walls and it's fenced with gates. We have a second refuge or trash area recycle area over here. So we do have a second area over here. And from an operational point of view, there'll be little carts that just move trash on site to the main pickup spot. So the intention isn't to bring trash on two sides of this project, but just in the very front off of North Palm Canyon and on site operational trash will just be stored there temporarily and then probably daily move to the to the main trash and recycle area.

And then can you just briefly go over some of the amenities that are being provided in the hotel? Sure. So.

Obviously having a great porte cochere and drop off and arrival point is something that we've worked really hard, and the entire design team has worked really hard. So the amenities start with the lobby, which is modest but along the lines of something that allows decompression. And, you know, after traveling from LA or San Diego or, or coming to the airport and ubering over here just allows that, that sense of resort to, to start. And from there we have immediately behind there's a connection into a bar that's intended here. And the reason we're not providing full interior design for the bar and restaurant is frankly, it's it really is the coalescing together, the food service, the type of of food, that food and beverage that they're, you know, they're working through. They have a good relationship. I was surprised that Zander didn't mention the outfit, because they're well known in town and highly reputable, but that amenity, the the bar and the outdoor patio and indoor dining are all open to the public, but the guests will then have the option of going into the restaurant or being on the patio here. And then that opens to if you looked at the landscape plans, there's several designations for Canyon, Oasis, the Sunseeker at the pool area, so the amenities continue down in the pool area, the bar, the changing rooms, showers, lockers, spa, outdoor cabanas are part of the amenity

package. The event lawn would be something that if there's a buyout and somebody is having a wedding or somebody having something going on, it's accommodated there on site, much like at, I want to call it the Viceroy, but it's changed name since we worked on it, so I continue to call it visor, but there's a great little courtyard surrounded by ficus and it just feels like the sky. So it's it's this internal little event lawn that can open to the pool. And so we've got some ideas of how those things share the space. And then when we get to building B, yes, there is a warming kitchen here and there are meeting rooms here. One of the things that we know well is we've got a shoulder season that can be challenging, and we've got an off season that can be really challenging. And in order to get more year round use of the facility, having some meeting rooms, having the ability to kind of flex towards something where you're attracting groups, that's revitalizing and energizing. Building B, building B also has in it a gym, small, but there's a facility here and there is the potential for some treatment rooms and things back in there. But we're really at the moment looking at this as being serving the back of house needs back in that corner. And again, as we see it, it's it's a modest sized property, but we'll probably be using carts and things to move laundry and things around so it, you know, low noise, low impact on this outdoor perimeter road

where we then have the interior amenities in these courtyards and the open space. Okay. Thank you. Yes.

I just have 1 or 2 additional questions from what was asked so far, I guess. Lance, this might be for you. In the it. Was there any consideration about trying to squeeze in some sort of landscape buffer along the very west property line, where you abut the existing residential? I know it's tight there between the existing sort of utility building and there's overhead lines I know there that serve through there. But was there any effort or ability to try to squeeze in a landscape buffer?

Yeah, it's a tough it it is a it is a tough little area back there. We've got an existing 1938 building that has some historic value. And its footprint is some 20ft away from the property line wall. I've looked at the early photos in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. There wasn't anything behind it. It just turned into, you know, just turned into the alluvium that goes up into the Chino Cone. And so it did have this wonderful open space sometime in the 70s, a condo development was put in. They are some five feet above our building. B so at the western end of our site, there's a retaining wall here, and those condos are five feet above the finished floor of our site, which then slopes down to Palm Canyon. So they're up above and behind their own landscaping. If I were standing on a lower floor porch or entry on one of those condos, I would be looking over the roof of our buildings just because of the sight lines and the low nature of building B that we're not touching. We're not doing anything to it. And then I would also argue that the great view is West. It's not really over our building. So I think they're going to continue to enjoy the views to San Jacinto that they've always had. Our building isn't becoming intensified other than being cleaned up. That that alleyway back there. We need every square foot for getting fire and emergency vehicles through there per their request. So we're stuck between having an

historic building that's placed very close to a property line and having emergency access around the building, which precludes putting much landscaping in. What is the condition of the wall along there? I know you mentioned there's a retaining wall that is on the at the edge of the condo property, but what is the condition and the status of the wall? There's a retaining wall that is in decent shape, and on top of that is a wood fence. Is that on the site or is that on the condo property?

It's on the condo property. So the wood fence must have been installed by the condo project as a, as a, as a mitigating measure, because there was now a site drop. Once that project was created and approved. So yeah, it's not anything we really have control over. And then again, it's an Edison utility easement there with some high voltage lines that are yeah, they're running through there and they do go underground somewhat north of our project, but they continue as you run south. Those high voltage lines continue straight through all of the properties that are along North Palm Canyon.

All right. Thank you. Commissioner Baker, did you have questions? Hi. A couple questions here. To piggyback on. Let's start with oh, so the restaurant will be open to the public. Are you going to have any public access to the pool? Sort of like the hotel in the Avalon. Zander, you want to speak to that?

Yeah. Thank you. Commissioner, I think we're certainly open to it. At the vast majority of our other resort like properties we have, we do open the pool to to the public. We are concerned around noise just as much as anybody, and that we are in the business of providing folks a place to sleep. So we will take that into consideration. But it is intended certainly for many days of the year, to be to be open to and enjoyed by the public. Thank you. And in terms of EV parking, are you splitting Tesla parking and non Tesla chargers as well, or you're only providing for.

I think we're still evolving on that. We've got a good electrical engineer that we're working with, and I'm sure they'll come up with some clever ways to make sure that, you know, whomever shows up can charge. That's all I have for now. Vice Chair Lane. Can you tell us or describe for us what. The the target market is? What type of visitors are you expecting or guests? Zander I'm going to throw that at you.

Absolutely. And thank you for the question. Something we've given a lot of thought to. I think there's two ways of answering that. One is to say that our target audience is everybody. In many ways, that sounds good. I think branding professionals would tell us that if you're for everybody or for nobody, but I think it's I think it's an important principle of ours to be to be entirely inclusive to everybody. So at the ethos of of what we do, our hotel will, at its essence be be open and welcome everybody to stay. I think, realistically, the majority of our guests will likely be between the ages of sort of mid 20s to 60 years old. They will be. Mostly leisure tourists to Palm Springs. In all likelihood, folks who have been to Palm Springs before looking to try something new or perhaps new to Palm Springs, drawn by a new hotel in the market. We've seen with other examples like the Kimpton and the Thompson project, some some great success in attracting new folks to the market and educating folks about Palm Springs. I think our our traveler is, is is fun seeking, seeks a connection with other individuals, and we've provided a lot of opportunity for folks to engage with one another, whether with the friends that they show up with or by meeting new people. And I think they're just as interested in hanging out with the locals as they are hanging out with their with their tourist friends that arrive. They'll certainly be here for the tennis and some of the music festivals, as well as many of the other diverse band drivers that that that the city has always had and continues to, to grow. And then I think lastly, with the meeting rooms, potentially some convention goers, we're thrilled about the renovation project proposed for the convention center, and we'd

love to be a part of the growth of that. That terrific plan. Okay, so and you don't. Identify that you might be drawing people from the Los Angeles and San Diego area or if they might be flying in.

I would say that we would look like most other upper upscale hotels in that regard. With regards to demand distribution between San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, sort of the drive to markets, if you will, and, and the fly in markets. I don't expect that we would appear any different in terms of our guest mix by the time we stabilize.

Okay. Thank you. Let's see. Commissioner Brotman mentioned the trash enclosures. And as I look at the location of them, they're the first thing you're going to see is you're driving in to the hotel property. And not only that for people, we have lovely illustrations of people walking in, and that's going to be the first kind of their entry experience. Is it possible? Did you take a look at moving them? And I can't point here, just north of where they're located to the other side of the drive aisle, or about a little bit further west again, just in that that bank of.

I can I can take. That one.

Because it is something we've certainly evaluated. And it's very important to us. I think the location that we've chosen ultimately is a culmination of a study of a bunch of different opportunities, and we've selected this location because we actually feel like we can conceal it to the greatest extent possible in this location, while also optimizing efficiency from an operating standpoint and a guest disruption standpoint. It'll be buried in beautiful landscaping and surrounded by, in all likelihood, a CMU block enclosure with openings that do not open out onto any sort of publicly visible areas, but instead inwards towards towards the back of house of the of the restaurant operation. Similarly, on the southwest site portion of the site. So we, we, we, we understand what you're saying. We agree with it entirely. And I think our, our election to place it where it's been placed is, is a result of, you know, asking the same questions you've asked and arriving on this location.

I'm thinking in, in part of a couple of hotels in town where it's we'd like to believe otherwise, but there's an odor associated with where your trash, where your dumpsters are, and it can be pretty off putting. Do you have any concern? I understand that you can disguise it esthetically so that we're not seeing it, but do you have any concerns about that filtering in to people who are coming to the restaurant?

We would have concerns, absolutely, if we weren't confident that we designed a execution that really works well here. And I think operationally, we'll certainly make it our focus to, to to address any sort of operational needs here to, to limit any sort of smell or other unpleasant and knock on effects of, of of trash, something we're, we're well versed in managing. I think we can get it right while it's in this location. Okay.

And speaking of the restaurant, how do you if I'm walking to the restaurant, if I'm in the neighborhood, walking to the restaurant, how do I get into do I need to go through the lobby? No. On one of the drawings, one of the something in plan view, it looked as though there was a sidewalk coming to it. But then I look in the elevation. I can't find the entrance, and I'm just a little bit confused about. Yeah, we'd.

We'd ultimately like to provide two entrances, while the lobby integrates nicely with the with the restaurant and provides a social ambiance, I think it's also equally important at other times to create a bit of a distinction. So we'd like to explore, we'd like to provide a separate entrance to the restaurant, and if you are walking to the restaurant as a as a local member of the community, you would have a separate arrival experience there. Yeah. So there are two. There's one to the pair of doors, large doors to the lobby itself, and adjacent to that with some architectural features. There's an entry into the restaurant which is separate and distinct.

Can you show the on the elevation, the large short, the, the doors that go or the entry that goes directly into the restaurant from. Going the right way? There we go. So in this diagram that I think I might just walk up there and point.

Thank you. Thank you. So the main doors to the lobby are located here. Then there is a vertical feature that happens here. And the door into the restaurant is located there. So both under the porte cochere but adjacent to each other pair of doors for the lobby, single door for the restaurant.

Okay. Thank you. And I think I have one other question. Oh. On your landscaping, there are seem to be some discrepancies just between the site plan with landscaping on it and the the pretty pictures that go with it, the event space, the area around the we call it the sun seekers area around the pool is that turf is that artificial turf? And should I be looking at the more verdant where representations where there's a lot more of it? Or is it.

So green in this image just designates open space? It doesn't mean that all of that green in there is turf. The likelihood where we have universal amenity spaces like this outdoor. This outdoor lawn event area probably will be lawn. These areas in here are a combination of drought tolerant mass plantings and other plantings in those areas. The areas out front again would be it's shown as green, but there's a combination of inert rocks and gravel and low plant material. So I think the water calculations have been done. Were quite proud of the water saving nature of this and concentrating the the more lush areas into these courtyards. Well, you know, providing buffers and landscaping on the perimeter and shade trees.

Okay. Last question. You have in quotes. Enhanced paving out front. Can you describe that? The magic words I'm looking for here are integral colors so that it lasts.

But yeah. So the enhanced paving is something that we are proposing both for the visual benefit of folks arriving. The traffic calming nature of having something with texture to it, and having color associated with it. So while we're not specifically saying the enhanced paving will be a Schofield 553 in integral color concrete with, you know, saw cuts and doing this and that, it the intention is to make it feel like it's it it feels like someplace you could bring some tables and chairs and, and have an event. Although it it is part of the courtyard entry sequence.

Not pavers. Not not small pavers but larger, larger paving elements that might be on the order of two feet by four feet. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. I've got some questions and a lot of them have been asked. What is. There's a very dark green line in the front. That's not that. I can't even guess what it is. It could be. You know what? What is that line and the green that you show on the street side of it? Is that the area that you will be required to put sidewalk once Caltrans opens that up?

Yeah. So let me just address the sidewalk and the, the, the pedestrian nature as it occurs along North Palm Canyon. So we are having to rebuild and rework that sidewalk. We are keeping the existing tree wells that are part of the Palm Canyon experience, and we are having to do paving wells around those to make sure that we've got both Ada clearance around those, as well as proper slopes and things that sidewalks a little beat up over time in there. So it'll all get rebuilt. The curbs likely will get rebuilt, the driveway entries will all be flattened out, and the path of travel will go behind any of the slopes. So this whole area is getting reworked. Then once you come in from the city street trees, we are going to have a landscape buffer along there. I don't know exactly what the plant material is, but it's intended to create a hedge so that there is some visual mystery about what's going behind this thing. Not quite like the Parker, where you have no idea what's going on behind that hedge, but somewhere in a Parker esque relationship so that there is some privacy. The intention is to allow the rooflines and things of the porte cochere to hover up above that, and to have sight lines into the property. But the goal is not to have the Big Rick's parking lot that we have today, which just feels like it's it's just out of place.

So what you're saying is the green lines that I see the the green lines and I think I'm on, oh, I don't know. I'm on an unmarked page. Those are going to be hedge. They're going to be a hedge. And then the the landscape that we see behind this is what would currently possibly exist. But those are all going to be reworked because you've got to build a sidewalk behind what you might lose to the street in the future. Correct? Correct. And okay, so it's. Going to be done at the same time.

It's all going to be done at the same time. So the the street experience and the improvements to all the buildings along North Palm Canyon, the concealing of the parking lot, all of those things are intended to go in day one. So the the ultimate.

May I interrupt and also just add that that sidewalk is existing today, but is Ada deficient and also in a state of, you know, reasonable repair, but in the long run could could, could become worse with some cracks. So we are planning on having plantings on both sides of the hedge to provide an esthetic appeal from both the inside and the outside of that hedge, and and to also just fix up, clean up and bring up to compliance the sidewalk on the exterior.

And the sidewalk today is too narrow, broken and heavily walked so that it's pedestrian hazard. And what you're saying is that as you go through this, that is part of the site that you're going to fix. Yeah. So yeah, that entire experience along the front is not only part of the conditions of approval, but part of what we see as the front door to the public. And so. We would see that too.

Yeah. So, so fixing all that up, concealing the parking, creating sight lines that are into important architectural pieces, concealing the trash enclosures, the massing of the restaurant and how one sees that both at a three mile an hour pedestrian speed, a 15 mile an hour bike speed, or a 4050 mile an hour car speed, all of those we've thought about how how to layer the property, how to create proper sight lines. It's a challenge because the the curve is going the opposite way of the sight line into the property. So in the old days, signage was really important. I think today people just punch in the address into their driving system and they, you know, they arrive. And so sight having a big elephant car wash sign out front isn't going to be what we need to bring people in. And it's not the intention, but having something out there that is very tasteful in addition to the landscaping is part of the overall program.

So you said the entry experience is is a paver like situation. Is that also the entry experience into the two drive aisles? Well.

Those are they all need to get rebuilt. We've got some radii that don't meet turning requirements. We've got way too many curb cuts in there. Some of that had to do with some old curb cuts that came right through the middle, that were part of that old motor inn. And so there's a curb cut here. There's a curb cut here. There's a curb cut here where we're putting this one. There's another one down here. There's there's this one up here. So we're repurposing this one, rebuilding it and rebuilding that sidewalk experience. We're adding this one in here. And that allows the path of travel back behind the curb cut and behind the the flair into the into the porte cochere. Then we're getting rid of the two in here and flattening that out. And then we're repurposing this one with the right turning radii and then this one down here we're getting rid of. So it's a major street improvement. And all in conjunction with Caltrans because it's right.

Yeah. Adding to the complexity. Yeah Caltrans complexity okay. I appreciate the change in the park, especially the Ricks parking was frequented it all of the time while it was open. So I knew it very well. Is there's a change in grade, isn't there, on the south side of the property that's significant. Are you still going to feel that.

The the change in grade looked like it was probably a ten, 15, 20 year ago improvement to what looked like the grease trap that was, you know, servicing all the all the grease that was coming out of the restaurant. And they built it up out of concrete. So there's this mound that's occurring in there. We're reworking that entire area to just make it so that there's no trip hazards, so that it doesn't feel incongruous with the adjoining spaces. But we have some great changes in there that we have to be mindful of. So at the end of the day, we're coming up to the porte cochere about 12in higher than it is currently. This remains relatively flat. This whole area here, which does tend to drop down, is being flattened out. And then we're working all the ramping and and path the travel back into the property. But we've got to meet a lot of existing conditions that exist there. And so we're doing our best to try to find that happy balance between what exists currently and where it needs to go, while giving it a uniform appearance and not the kind of haphazard that it is today.

Additional questions along the north and south boundary walls. They're little diamonds, and in some of the renditions it shows landscaping those what your intention is. There is some kind of vine or hedge that covers that greens, those walls. Correct?

Correct. And the diamonds were working with our landscape team, both on the watering of those and the potential for root barriers and things to make sure that we're not creating a durability issue going forward. So deep watering any of those little triangles we're studying right now, just to make sure that the wheel wells and the cars get all the way into the spaces while still having plenty of shade and and good growth area for the trees.

It looks like. And again, it's not we don't see a landscape plan, but in terms of the parking, it looks like there's a lot more shading on the south side of the property with a newer building is then there is shading on the north side of the property, and one of the concerns I, I know you're as a resort looking at sun, but we're looking at living here and greeting people in the summertime and. It that's on the, on the north side. I would be happy to see you lose some parking spaces to be able to put additional, some additional shading into that and do a larger staff approval of parking reduction. Have you thought about that? Because we've I know I certainly have thought about that as a recommendation.

Yeah. Zander, we were just talking about that in the last couple of days, about how we got to the parking count that we got to, and could we augment that with more landscaping, more landscape shading. And, Zander, why don't you let the commission.

It's a valid it's a valid consideration for for many reasons. I think the beauty of the way that our site is laid out as it relates to parking spaces on the north side, is that the buildings will naturally provide shade 365 days a year to those spaces. Given the the path of travel of the sun. So on the southern side of that northern parking, you can see slightly fewer trees. But we're we're always happy to explore the addition of more trees in lieu of parking. I think we just want to be careful that we are providing the parking that's practically required. We feel confident that we are right now, but happy to have, you know, have a have another look at that and. Look for opportunities. But we we do feel that the north side that's less shaded by the building is, is is sufficiently shaded by the, by the plantings that are provided on that north side.

I would be happy if I saw more shading coming from buildings. We don't generally get that. The way we build buildings we don't. I don't think we get enough shading from our buildings. There are other countries that are have more sun than think a lot more about the buildings providing shading than we do. But couldn't couldn't agree with you more. Maybe they had better insight into it. In the in the 1950s when building A was built. Couldn't couldn't agree with you more.

In 1950. I'm sure they had very little insight and we had a better climate as well. In the summertime, I think. Not to be political, but just I've been experiencing it getting hotter. One of the things I see, and again, it is not our purview, although it might be a recommendation, is all of the trees that you show in the inner courtyards are really not trees. They're grass plants, which we call palm trees, and they don't provide significant shade. That's something that I'm hoping you're open to more, more real shade trees that do provide shade shade to your understory as well.

Yeah. So this is the vignette. Those were really hard to read.

Yeah I yeah they're they're small. But the the idea is that there. Yes there is low shrubs moving up into a seasonally colorful palo verde tipuana mesquite kind of relationship at the medium story and then having some palms. And we we've gone through we've looked at date palms, referencing the Coachella Valley as a whole and the agricultural past, which is near and dear to my heart, as well as the more appropriate California fan palms. But you're right there. They provide a statuesque relationship with the sky, but not a whole lot of shade. And the shade really is in this. This medium tree story that we have. And I know Xander, you may want to speak to it, but you've been encouraging us to to really get lush, much more lush than I think the landscape designers were at the beginning.

Yeah. And I feel like we've landed in a great place here, having the three tiers of, of height, both the, the sort of architectural nature and of the palm trees, the shade cover and the mid range and then the ground cover at the low range is been our focus since the beginning of this, this exercise.

And the other thing is this is again, just be cautious. We're losing trees. Some species in the valley that we love, the palo verde in specific, are having a really hard time. But I think if you're going in the direction of three tiers, I do. And again, not my purview, but protecting the understory is also really important, as well as protecting the people walking through the area. You'll keep your plants if you have. Absolutely. If you have those kinds of tearing.

Absolutely agreed. You're you're we we concur entirely. You're 100% right. The the other is in the, the very back area. And I appreciate what you've said about this being stuck with a historic building that doesn't have enough footage behind it to really get turns. Can you get any kind of any kind of signage or anything on the walls? My sense is that the retaining wall that's along here, because it is retaining five feet plus, probably has a substantial footing underneath it, which.

Will prevent plants from. Which getting anything to grow. There would just be almost impossible.

If it does. You're right. It won't. Okay, that that takes away something I wanted to. Talk about. I think the the other thing I couldn't get a really good sense of. And hopefully when this goes to the Architectural Review is I couldn't get a sense of what I was going to see from the street, and I do, and that's that will be something that I'm concerned, I'm concerned about and want them to be concerned about is I feel like we got on somewhat unfinished drawings, possibly, but I do think you need it needs to be articulated so people can get a sense of what's going to draw people into the property. We're very concerned about this area. We think it could be, you know, it is an area that could attract substantial tourism, and we'd like it to do that well.

And we have developed renders that look both at the incoming southbound experience onto the building and sight lines and the outbound north driving experience. So we do have those and we can forward those to staff and get them forward to you. But yeah, we'll make sure they're included in the package that goes. To yeah, that could. Be something that I will put as a requirement for the package that goes to and thank you for offering it, but I'm glad you've offered it because I want to require it. I want to make sure that. No.

We had a lot of people sitting in on the East Coast going, well, what does this thing look like? Yeah. So and I and when I looked at it it's like okay, the components I understand them but I don't. I don't have a feel for what I'm going to see. The site plan is you know, it other than some of the parking and, and some smaller issues. I think the site plan, what's before us is what's before works. But I want the Arc to know what we're going to get and like it. Understood.

I think those that's probably the end of my long set of comments. Thank you very much. Anybody else have comments? Nope. Oh, you do worry. Comments? No we're not at comments. Any other questions? Before I close the public hearing? Meghan do you have comments before we and you should raise your hand when you do. Please. I don't have any comments. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. The public hearing is closed. It's before the commission. I think we have before us something that we want to approve. We may have a few tweaks and issues that we want to send to the Arc. First of all, I guess the first question before we we talk about it is, Chris, can you talk a little bit about the Ceqa issues and where our attorneys are on that? I think I think the public raised those issues.

Sure. I you know, I think that the comments that have been expressed, expressed concerns with the findings that we have made under the categorical exemption envisioned by Sequa. I think from our perspective, we've analyzed the submission that is before us, the information that we have, our interpretation of sequa and how to apply the categorical exemption. And we feel like it applies in this case. And we're comfortable with the city's determination. Okay. Comments before we make motions are things people might like to include in the motions.

Can I start with a comment that's a follow up to Mr. Evans response. Yes.

We received today a spreadsheet for ordered from a single individual. It's a spreadsheet with about 65 or 70 letters summarized in opposition to the project, and they are all objecting on the basis of sequa. And I personally find the. Letters, the packaging, the presentation two hours before the meeting to be disingenuous. I believe that these individuals have. A different goal in mind, and that I agree with the staff recommendation or the staff finding that this is categorically exempt under Ceqa class 32. That's exactly why Sequa provides. This is the exact type of project wise secret provides these exemptions. It is a long blighted site. It is a detriment to the neighborhood. It was many decades ago developed and has been used for essentially essentially the same use until it went out of business and all environmental impact has occurred. It is no longer, and the renovation of the project is not going to be a threat to the water, to the air quality, to the greenhouse gases, to the traffic. Anything else that is claimed in the summary letters that we received. And furthermore, this project is a good thing. This is what we want to see happen.

This is this happens in an infill area with a secret exemption rather than the new greenfield development, which would destroy native environment that has not previously been adversely impacted. It's my own personal opinion that these letters are disingenuous. However, if there are people who wrote these who are sincere about wanting to help reduce the traffic, improve the air quality, improve the water quality in Palm Springs, I certainly encourage them to come forward and participate. We have a sustainability Commission whose mission is to address things like this, to make the city a better place to live. It now has an active transportation subcommittee. Please come forward, get involved in those organizations that will be much more productive towards improving the environment of Palm Springs than is objecting to a project that is removing blight.

Thank you for that speech. I'm going to I think at this point I'm going to make I can't help. Myself sometimes.

A preliminary motion to approve, I'm going to list a couple of items that I'm I have concern about, but the I think I totally agree with you that this is a good project. This is the kind of thing we want to see. It's a long, blighted site, and it's going to bring back a restaurant that might be at the same, close to the same price point Rick's was, which would be really wonderful in the city for many of us. My concerns with this is I. I don't understand what I'm going to see with the project. So is it going to Architectural Review? I do think that the providing a view of what the project is going to look like northbound and southbound one is your walking, possibly two is your driving giving a sense of it? Because it doesn't it yet doesn't have personality. To me in terms of the site, although I think it has helps my understanding to understand that the green line was fencing. The second is I think it needs to go with a full landscape plan which didn't come to us. The plants weren't marked. Possibly it wasn't forwarded to us. I don't think it can go with showing areas as green that are landscaped areas. It creates an entirely different understanding of what the site is going to be like. I would recommend that if possible, we not going to recommend any anything along the back line. I, I, I agree that there's probably a footing there that would prevent what I would like to see growing in that area to be put there. I would like to recommend that we get on the

north side. And Chris, can you help me in terms of the number of parking spaces, I'd like to see a greater parking space reduction and additional trees. I want to make sure that both, both north and south border walls are landscaped either with a hedge or with some kind of greenery.

I don't know that I would want to speak on the fly about what that number is, but why don't we craft? Why doesn't the recommendation be that prior to Arc review, the applicant in coordination with the planning department or to the satisfaction of the planning director, ensure that sufficient shade and landscaping is provided on the north and south side of the project, which may increase the number of parking spaces reduced through the administrative minor modification.

If we create that as a condition that, that's fine with me and. I do share some of the concerns about where the trash is located. I don't know if there's a way of as we're reviewing the site plan, I am concerned about the odor coming from the trash in in that entry area. I do think that the Arc should take a look at the proposed new paving, and they should see it. And the what was presented to us is that it would be calming, create a sense of calm it. I think it's important that they that there that there be some kind of paving and not just asphalt. But again, that's stuff that we haven't seen in terms of the layout of the building. I actually and the site plan itself. I've no issues with it. So my conditions really have to do with understanding what the architecture, what the, the architecture is on the frontage and understand what it looks like from the street.

Can I repeat those and then ask a clarifying question? The other is to be very clear on what the the paint and colors are, because we didn't get to see colors and materials, and if everything is in reference to a stone wall that exists, I think there need to there needs to be displays of what that wall is that that they're working from. Okay.

Here's what I heard. Provide a rendering with a view from both northbound and southbound North Palm Canyon to clarify what the experience will be. The visual experience into the site provide a full landscape plan for review by Architectural Review Committee that clarifies plant materials and locations. Ensure sufficient landscaping, including shade trees on the north and south side of the of of the site, including considering additional parking reductions through the administrative minor modification process to the satisfaction of the planning Director that arc review the paving materials and consider not allowing asphalt. Ensure that the trash enclosures are appropriate, appropriately located and screened. Is that what I heard on that one? And then that arc that the submission to arc provides clarity on the paint colors and materials being used?

Is there anything? Yes.

I just wanted to make a couple of comments. One is just to reiterate the sequa issue. This is as Vice Chair Allen said and others have said, this is exactly what the 15332 infill exemption is designed to cover. We know this is well under 100 peak hour trips, which is the city's adopted threshold for when a more detailed traffic analysis is warranted. This is exactly what the secret guidelines have, you know, would have envisioned any noise or air quality issues that might occur with any construction site are going to be handled by the city's standard conditions of approval during the building, during the building process. So I think all of the the fear mongering that's been done with these comments is really unfounded, and that this is solidly in the infill category. The only other comment I would make was regarding trash. I didn't get to say this. There was some reference to perhaps moving the trash away from the building, but unfortunately if they move it away from their building, it gets closer to the adjacent residential projects in the southwest and in the north, and I would rather have them deal with their odors on their site, and they can handle that with refrigeration of the rooms if it becomes an issue. So those are my only comments.

So what you're saying is, if it becomes an issue that we look at some some facility that would deal with the odors. Well. I'm suggesting that we don't move it away from the building because then it moves it up against the residential. Possibly moving it a little further from the street. But that's. Then it gets closer to the rooms, too, which may become an issue even if there's a minor odor.

I'm having trouble pulling up the plans to sort of look at it. Can I ask Lance a quick question? Yes, Lance, the trash rooms, are they the walls around the trash area are at what height are they or are they full height? They're full height.

We've explored between kind of a six foot standard height and an eight foot height. Eight foot is actually better for us from a massing point of view, as it as it relates to the back of house on the restaurant, the prevailing wind, which we all know can be quite ferocious up there, tends to blow the odors into the street and down Palm Canyon, which would then dissipate them. And then, from an operational point of view, having it at that location near the front door will incentivize them to make sure that their power washing, they're doing everything in their power to keep whatever environment is at their front door as pristine as possible. So I think this is a good location. And as soon as an odor pops up, staff and and operations will know it and they'll be able to tackle it versus something that's more remote and bothering somebody else versus bothering them at the front door.

So it's not open air is what is. It's a fully enclosed. It's open air. It doesn't have a roof over it. If you if we get into the summer months and the organic matter in there is such that it's starting to do something that is adverse to operations and and happy customers, then I'm sure these guys that would be the first thing that they tackle. They're used to working in in urban environments in Boston and Miami. And I can't imagine, you know, how trash and refuse is handled there. But, you know, here at least things dry out. But yeah, organic matter can tend to get. All right.

Thank you a little aggressive. So what I'm hearing is the comments I made about relocate potentially relocating the trash aren't accepted. So I'll take that out of my motion. Any any other comments and then additions to the motion that I made. Okay. So do we have a second? I will second the motion. If we could just clarify that the motion includes the adopting the resolution, determining the project is exempt from Sequa under 15332 as well as the major development permit.

Yes. And and I'm sure the notes will include hopefully the notes will include some of the comments regarding Sequa in terms of determination that we made and that they'll be a little more substantial on that issue. Okay. So we have a motion and a second. Can you call the roll, please? Chair Warmack. Yes. Vice chair. Allen. Yes. Commissioner. Baker. Yes. Commissioner. Miller. Yes, Commissioner. Yes. Commissioner. Morrell. Yes.

Motion passes unanimously. And thank you. Best of luck to you. Bring this in for us. Thank you all very much for your time. Invite us to the opening. Oh, you're already invited. Okay. Thank you all so much. Okay.

Having. Taken dealt with everything that was in front of us, we have planning Commission reports, requests and comments. There are some requests just if you can fill us in on things that are happening, other things that are happening in the city, I think there's some build a new some meetings and building department, a new building code and where we are, oh, do you want the restroom? Perfect. We are. We'll go dark until you get back.

I think you can pause it. Right.

Recording in progress.

So, Madam Chair, I believe you had asked me some questions about some upcoming items. So tomorrow night at City Council, we have a few items tracking. One is consideration of the appeals that were launched against the I believe it was 82 unit affordable housing project on San Rafael that you had all seen in November. We did receive appeals from adjacent neighbors on that. That will be considered by the city council tomorrow night. You know, I think as you all recall, we had a lot of conversation about the limits of state law in the city's purview. And considering those, especially in light of the density bonus laws under state law and our obligation to grant exceptions to any portions of the city code that were preclude an affordable housing project from achieving what they are entitled to under the state Density Bonus law. So that will be the focus of the discussion tomorrow night. We'll certainly see how City Council considers it. At the same time, they will be considering funding requests coming out of our Housing and Community Development Department, led by Jay Virata. Funding requests both for that site as well as the vacant site that is immediately south of the navigation center. You may have seen an article in the Palm Springs Post last night about the developer of that holding a community meeting on that, that the entitlements for that will come before you. I believe, actually at your next meeting. But funding requests are going to City council tomorrow night, both of which would be contingent on either the appeals being resolved or you all granting entitlements when it comes before you. But because of various very tight deadlines for state funding and tax credits, those funding requests need to move forward now so that they can submit applications by the end of the month to the state to qualify for certain tax credit financing, etcetera. So that's happening tomorrow night. We're also taking an urgency ordinance on changes to Adu laws that took effect on

January 1st. It's always cute when we get surprised at the end of year. Various laws that were passed and took effect January 1st. And so we are coming forward with an Adu urgency ordinance. The changes are not substantive. Some of them are related to urgency ordinances or urgency legislation that was passed at the state level related to the fires in California, largely related to coastal planning. But there are some implications for us. One of them is when a state of emergency has been declared, and I think this one is interesting. Under current law, you cannot issue a certificate of occupancy for an accessory dwelling unit if one has not been issued for the primary residence. In a case of a state of emergency, and where a home has been substantially destroyed by some kind of disaster, you would municipalities would be compelled to issue a certificate of occupancy for the Adu prior to the primary residence, and I think it makes sense why. So that's one small change. There was also been inconsistencies in terms of interpretation of current state law. You know, there are four categories of ADUs and junior ADUs that have to be processed administratively. You know, if it's a conversion of a garage, for example, if it's a detached that meets all of the state development standards, for example, and there's been differences of interpretation about whether you can combine those different four and get multiple ADUs on a site. Most municipalities have taken the interpretation that you only get one and the state is clarifying. No. You can in fact combine all of those and get multiple ADUs on a site. If you comply with all of the other standard regulations. Otherwise, it's primarily just you know when to development impact fees apply or don't apply little changes like that. But for us, we're already quite permissive in this arena, so we're not seeing major changes in terms

of how we're processing these. Adu change impact. That one property that we saw that was limited to one Adu, where they had two units on the property?

No, not in that case because one was sort of a nonstandard. It was it was operating beyond what state with minimum state requirements. So things like that would still come before you all under today's code, I will say there is interest from the council and certainly commitments that we've made in the housing element that you all adopted and council adopted not that long ago to go above and beyond state law. We are working through that through the zoning code update. We're also working through RFP responses that we got in terms of implementing the pre-approved Adu designs. So that is something the state has mandated. We're a little bit behind the curve on this, but it's been a difficult process to work through administratively. You know, in the Bay area and in the Los Angeles area, it's been much easier where you have to have a lot of different firms offering those services. We have a different pool to draw from, but we do have some responses that we're working through, and we hope to have that rolled out soon. And that is really aimed at, you know, as it as it would seem to give people a quick and easy route to doing an Adu without having to engage an architect or, you know, buy a plan from someone else and it would expedite the permitting process. We're also working again. J. Virata's team is working on a rental registry, and one of the commitments that we made in the housing element was to have a rental registry for for ADUs to connect tenants and landlords who might be looking to rent out or rent an Adu. So there's a lot going on for ADUs. But for tomorrow night, we're simply making sure that we comply with state law. So that's one thing. And then, as you mentioned, Madam Chair, the new building code is is moving forward from the building department. That will be a public hearing. I'm not super familiar with the details on that, but I know that different questions have come up about issues that are not squarely within planning, but more relevant to the building permit process about windows and rooftop solar and EV and

all of these kinds of things. And that is more squarely addressed through the building code process. So anyone who would like to engage in that process, the public hearing is tomorrow night. So that takes us through our council meeting tomorrow night. A couple other items. We are continuing to move the zoning code update forward. Lots of work going on behind the scenes on that, working through a lot of the public comments that we've been receiving. But we will be having another round of open houses. The in-person one will be January 26th at 5:30 p.m. at the convention Center, and then we will have an online version for those who are ♪who are&-punn February 4th on zoom, I believe it's in the afternoon. All of that information is on the zoning code update, which is at Engage Palm springs.com/zone, and we can certainly circulate that flier to all of you to distribute to your networks, because we want really good participation in that. What I will say is for anyone listening, there have been a lot of conversations about height and density and some of the proposed changes that we're working through. I would again caution everyone that there is a lot of consultation to occur. Certainly those rules, as you all know, have not been reviewed by you and your role as planning commissioners who will ultimately have to vote on this and certainly have not been endorsed by the city council, who will have to ultimately approve this. So a lot of work to go. However, you know, we've been just like this Adu issue that I've talked about. There is a lot of state law at play. I like to use the statistics that I heard that over 90 pieces of housing related legislation were passed last year alone, and so we are working through all of that to ensure that our zoning code is doing what it needs to do under state law. One of the things that we've talked about in this group and that we are working through, is a lot of state law, which already today supersedes our local authority in regulating housing and specifically heightened density.

And so, one of the things we've done in the maps that have been released to date is try to be transparent about where HCD has indicated to us that state law applies within our jurisdiction, where again, today, under certain circumstances, you can build higher and denser buildings than our code would, would typically allow. And so we're looking to build that into the code just to be transparent for everyone to understand where that can and cannot happen. A lot of consultation to go. We're certainly open to feedback on where and how we do that. You know, we also have a housing shortage, and housing is getting more and more expensive. For anyone who watched the Economic Development Strategic Plan conversation at council in December. You know, one of the striking things that I saw in that presentation was that housing costs have outpaced wage growth by three times, and that means three times. So so housing is getting more and more unaffordable to the people who live and work here. And so we really need to tackle that problem. And we have a very limited land base. I think, you know, as you all know, while it may appear when you look at our at a map or an aerial image of the city of Palm Springs and the very vast municipal boundary that we have, much of that land is very constrained. We're working on what that number is exactly, but it's well over 60% of our land base is undevelopable, whether it's constrained by a conserved desert land, mountain land, or obviously our very complex relation with tribal property, we do not have a lot of land left in our urban area. And so, you know, we have to take advantage of a very limited amount of land. With Rena allocations being given to us, we're about to get a whole new round of Rena allocations. We're only about 40% through meeting our obligations through 2029, and we're about to get a few thousand more. So we have to grow and we have to house the people who work here and who serve us. So that's our task. That's why we're doing

what we're doing. But we're super open to feedback at those open houses. And then finally, something that we haven't talked about in a little while. And I think, you know, I've been getting inquiries from the public making sure that it's still happening is formerly College Park specific plan, now called Grandview Heights Specific Plan, through an amendment process that is underway that is moving forward. It's been a lot of technical work behind the scenes, working through environmental review again, synthesizing a lot of the input that we got from the public and actually drafting draft rules and changes to that specific plan. We're getting close to releasing that to the public and holding another round of outreach on that. And so more to come on that, but we hope that it will sort of be before you in the coming months for consideration and for public input. That's it for now. Unless you all have questions.

The only one I have is that we got an invitation from the Palm Springs Architectural Alliance to attend a seminar of modernism in the Future of Housing, and it's a complimentary invitation. I it was meant to be extended to each of you, and I hope I know I'm planning on attending. I hope that you guys do too. And I believe that was circulated. Right. Okay.

Anything else? Okay. I would like with there being no other comments and questions, to adjourn the meeting until 530 Tuesday, January 27th and 2026. Nice to see all of you. Happy New year!