HomeMy WebLinkAboutPP 03-11 Amdn #1/Res 06-81CITY OF PALM DESERT
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
STAFF REPORT
REQUEST: Consideration of approval of an amendment to previous approvals to
allow a drive-thru specialty coffee outlet adjacent to Cook Street, Pad
No. 4, 37-825 Cook Street.
SUBMITTED BY: Steve Smith, Planning Manager
APPLICANT: Prest Vuksic Architects
44-530 San Pablo Avenue,
Suite 200
Palm Desert, CA 92260
CASE NO: PP 03-11 Amendment #1
DATE: June 8, 2006
CONTENTS:
The Evans Company
Attn: Rick Evans
74-000 Country Club Drive
Palm Desert, CA 92260
Recommendation
Discussion
Planning Commission Staff Report dated May 16, 2006
Planning Commission Resolution No. 2396
Planning Commission Minutes of May 16, 2006
Related Exhibits
Recommendation:
That the City Council adopt Resolution No. 06-81 approving PP 03-11
Amendment #1, subject to conditions.
Discussion:
PROPOSED PROJECT
The applicant requests approval of an amendment to PP 03-11 to allow a drive-thru
specialty coffee outlet on Pad No. 4 north of the access driveway midway between
Gerald Ford and University Drive.
Staff Report
Case No. PP 03-11 Amendment #1
Page 2
June 8, 2006
Specifically, the applicant proposes a three -tenant 4,280 square foot building
(previously 3,800 square feet) with the north space being a 1,240 square foot Bad
Ass Coffee outlet with drive-thru window in the north elevation and outdoor patio in
the east setback adjacent to Cook Street.
PLANNING COMMISSION ACTION
At its May 16, 2006 meeting the Planning Commission on a motion by Finerty,
second by Campbell, recommended approval of the application on a 5-0 vote.
The Commission concluded that the design and layout were consistent with the
requirements of the FCOZ (Freeway Commercial Overlay Zone).
BACKGROUND
The original "Evans" University Village plan proposed drive-thru restaurants on Pad
Nos. 3 and 4 adjacent to Cook Street. As a result of Planning Commission input
during its November 4, 2003 hearing (minutes enclosed), Mr. Evans withdrew the
request for drive-thrus on Pad Nos. 3 and 4 with the understanding that he could
come back later with a specific tenant proposal.
Circulation
The drive-thru lane will enter from "Main Street' at the north end of the parking lot,
proceed east, then turn south parallel to Cook Street toward the drive-thru window.
Stacking for seven (7) vehicles per code is provided. A one-way exit from the drive-
thru connects back to "Main Street."
In order to preserve adequate circulation in the parking lot, a "bypass" lane is to be
provided at the south end of the parking lot along with angled parking spaces
adjacent to the drive-thru lane.
The southerly three parking spaces adjacent to the stacking lane are designated for
"employee parking." This should limit turnover in those spaces and result in a
minimum of conflict between the parking and the stacking lane.
Circulation is acceptable.
Staff Report
Case No. PP 03-11 Amendment #1
Page 3
June 8, 2006
Parking
The stacking lane, bypass lane, building reconfiguration, larger building and new
patio area all conspire to reduce the amount of parking which was previously
designed in this area of the site.
The current site plan provides 43 parking spaces whereas the original design had
52 spaces in this area.
The commercial portion of the plan was originally parked at five spaces per 1,000
square feet. The changes in this plan (reduced parking and increased building area)
bring the ratio to 4.99 spaces per 1,000 square feet over the total commercial area.
Pursuant to Municipal Code Section 25.58.360 City Council may approve a parking
adjustment from five spaces per 1,000 square feet to 4.99 spaces per 1,000 square
feet as part of the requested precise plan amendment.
Architecture and Landscaping
The low profile (20 feet high) building will provide an attractive desert contemporary
look with significant shading provided by trellises and overhangs.
Landscaping for this area of the project is part of the overall Desert Willow style
landscape plan for the center.
Landscaping and architecture received preliminary approval by the ARC
(Architectural Review Commission) April 11, 2006.
FCOZ Criteria
The FCOZ district requires that projects meet specific design criteria as follows:
A. That drive -up lanes and window facilities be designed so as not to be visible
from an arterial street.
Response:
Cross sections provided by the applicant (see enclosed packet) indicate that
the parking lot surface is 5 feet 5 inches higher than the adjacent point on
Staff Report
Case No. PP 03-11 Amendment #1
Page 4
June 8, 2006
Cook Street. This grade difference, a new four (4) foot high masonry screen
wall and landscape material at the top of slope will obscure any view of the
drive-thru lane and the pick-up window from the public street.
B. Stacking for seven (7) vehicles is required.
Response:
The plan provides seven stacking spaces.
C. Landscaping.
Code requires that projects provide a minimum 30% landscaped open space
of which at least half is common usable public space.
Response:
The plan has moved the building further back from Cook Street than
originally shown thereby increasing the landscaping on the corner of the site.
The applicant has taken half of that area and set it aside for a common patio
area.
A similar approach was taken with the Wendy's drive-thru restaurant at
Washington and Country Club with a positive result.
In addition, the project as a whole provides pedestrian amenity space along
Main Street and a large public plaza at the Cook Street and Gerald Ford
corner of the project.
ANALYSIS
The proposal, if approved, will result in an architecturally attractive building which
includes a drive-thru pick-up window, stacking lane and patio area.
The drive-thru facility will be obscured from view from a public street by differences
in grade, a four -foot high wall and landscape planting.
Circulation in the parking lot and through the drive-thru is well planned and will work
well.
Staff Report
Case No. PP 03-11 Amendment #1
Page 5
June 8, 2006
The project complies with the FCOZ district review criteria except for parking.
A reduction in parking from five spaces per 1,000 square feet to 4.99 spaces per
1,000 square feet may be approved pursuant to Municipal Code Section 25.58.350.
Staff observation confirms that centers which meet the five spaces per 1,000 square
feet code requirement are never 100% full even at the busiest time. Witness Desert
Crossing where 40% occupancy is the norm and only 60% to 75% during holiday
season.
A reduction of .01 spaces per 1,000 square feet for the commercial portion of this
project will be insignificant to the project as a whole.
Staff recommends approval of the amendment to allow a drive-thru on Pad No. 4,1
with parking adjustment discussed above. a c
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CEQA REVIEW
The original proposal under Case PP 03-11 for which
Environmental Impact was certified included a drive-thru
further environmental review is necessary.
Submitted by:
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Steve Smith
Planning Manager
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Homer Croy CITY COUNCIL
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restaurant on this pad. Now
Department Head:
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Director of Community Development
Approval:
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Original on File W�t`lty Clerk's office
•5
RESOLUTION NO. 06-81
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
PALM DESERT, CALIFORNIA, APPROVING AN
AMENDMENT TO AN APPROVED PRECISE PLAN OF
DESIGN AND PARKING ADJUSTMENT TO ALLOW A
DRIVE-THRU SPECIALTY COFFEE OUTLET ADJACENT TO
COOK STREET, PAD #4, 37-825 COOK STREET.
CASE NO. PP 03-11 AMENDMENT #1
WHEREAS, the City Council by its Resolution No. 04-26 did on April 8, 2004
approve Case No. PP 03-11, subject to conditions; and
WHEREAS, the Planning Commission of the City of Palm Desert, Califomia, did on
the 16th day of May, 2006, by its Resolution No. 2396 recommend approval of this
application; and
WHEREAS, a drive-thru restaurant was considered on this site as part of the CEQA
review of the original PP 03-11 project for which a Negative Declaration of Environmental
Impact was certified; and
WHEREAS, at said public hearing, upon hearing and considering all testimony and
arguments, if any, of all interested persons desiring to be heard, said City Council did find
the following facts and reasons to exist to justify approval of said request:
1. The proposed precise plan amendment will comply with each of the
applicable provisions of this title, except for a parking adjustment permitted
through Municipal Code Section 25.58.360.
2. The proposed location of the drive-thru restaurant and the conditions under
which it will be operated and maintained will not be detrimental to the public
health, safety or general welfare, or be materially injurious to properties or
improvements in the vicinity.
3. The proposed precise plan amendment complies with the goals, objectives,
and policies of the City's General Plan.
4. The project complies with the Freeway Commercial Overlay Zone criteria.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Palm
Desert, California, as follows:
1. That the above recitations are true and correct and constitute the findings of
the City Council in this case.
RESOLUTION NO. 06-81
2. That the City Council does hereby approve Case No. PP 03-11 Amendment
#1, subject to the attached conditions.
PASSED, APPROVED and ADOPTED at a regular meeting of the Palm Desert City
Council, held on this day of , 2006, by the following vote, to wit:
AYES:
NOES:
ABSENT:
ABSTAIN:
ATTEST:
RACHELLE D. KLASSEN, City Clerk
City of Palm Desert, California
2
JAMES FERGUSON, Mayor
RESOLUTION NO. 06-81
CONDITIONS OF APPROVAL
CASE NO. PP 03-11 AMENDMENT #1
Department of Community Development:
1. That the conditions of approval imposed by City Council Resolution No. 04-26 shall
continue in full force and effect except that a drive-thru specialty coffee outlet shall
be permitted on Pad #4 and that the required parking ratio for the commercial
portion of the project shall be established at 4.99 parking spaces per 1,000 square
feet.
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Commissioner Finerty commented that it would be a dramatic improvement
and appreciated that the applicant wished to improve the neighborhood.
Commissioner Tschopp concurred.
Chairperson Lopez concurred and called for the vote. Motion carried 5-0.
It was moved by Commissioner Campbell, seconded by Commissioner
Tanner, adopting Planning Commission Resolution No. 2395, approving VAR
06-02, subject to conditions. Motion carried 5-0.
C. Case No. PP 03-11 Amendment #1 - PREST VUKSIC/THE EVANS
COMPANY, Applicants
(Continued from May 2, 2006)
Request for approval of an amendment to previous approvals
to allow a drive-thru specialty coffee outlet adjacent to Cook
Street, Pad #4, at 37-825 Cook Street.
Mr. Smith reviewed the staff report. He altered the recommendation in the
staff report from approval to a recommendation of approval to the City
Council. He asked for any questions.
Commissioner Finerty noted that with the Wonder Palms Ordinance certain
criteria was adopted at that time for drive-thru restaurants. One issue was
that it needed to be screened if it was in the Freeway Overlay Zone. She
recalled there was other criteria and asked how this project met that criteria.
Mr. Smith replied that it included stacking for seven, which this project
provided. Commissioner Finerty asked if it needed to provide an open area.
Mr. Drell said an outdoor amenity. Mr. Smith concurred. Commissioner
Finerty asked if this project complied with that requirement. Mr. Smith said
that with other drive-thrus they've come up with specific details relative to
open space. This was more like the area at Country Club and Washington.
If they wanted, they could ask the applicant to come up with some specific
art or something else they could emphasis in the area.
Going back to the criteria of stacking the open space and blocking it from a
major arterial, Commissioner Finerty asked if there was any other criteria
contained in that overlay ordinance. Mr. Smith replied that if there was, he
wasn't recalling it at the moment. Mr. Drell noted that there was a landscape
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requirement, but thought the normal 15% for parking went to 30%. With the
comer, he thought this project was at 30%. Basically, the public space was
part of the landscaping and half of it had to be usable space. Those were the
three. Commissioner Finerty asked if the usable space was the patio area.
Mr. Drell said the patio, in theory, was available to the general public. It
wasn't exclusive to the coffee user. He said the project itself had a huge
amenity area which is the main street. The public amenity space was
substantial in the grand scheme of the public promenade that goes down the
center. Mr. Smith indicated that the patio was accessible to two of the units.
Chairperson Lopez opened the public hearing and asked the applicant to
address the Commission.
MR. JOHN VUKSIC, Prest Vuksic Architects at 44-530 San Pablo
Avenue, stated that he was present, as well as the owners. He stated
that the original building pad that was there was a rectangular -shaped
building. Since then they pushed it, pulled it and massaged it into
something they thought was more interesting and more conducive to
using outdoor space. He said there were actually three patios around
the project. There was the main one they had been talking about,
another nestled in the "L" shape, and another one to the west. Two of
them were completely accessible to the public. Access to the third
would require going through some of the spaces to get to.
He stated that the architecture itself was a bit of a departure from
some of the things they have done. They were really excited about it.
It was more of a mercantile architecture they worked pretty hard on
with the owners. As far as the drive-thru, they called it a soft drive-thru
because instead of going around the building, it was part of the
parking lot. It was kind of a fun little arrangement because they could
circulate through the parking lot and still pull up and get a cup of
coffee. There were some sections provided to the Commission that
showed how it was screened from Cook Street, as well as renderings.
He reminded the Commission that this was located in the parking lot,
so the cars were pretty natural there. He asked for any questions.
Commissioner Campbell asked for confirmation that someone could enter
the area also from College and Cook.
Mr. Vuksic concurred and confirmed there was a right -in.
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Mr. Drell clarified that there is a left -in, right out.
Commissioner Tanner noted that 1,240 square feet would be the "Bad Ass
Coffee Company" (hereinafter referred to as BACC). He asked if any other
tenants had been signed into this project.
Mr. Vuksic said no. He confirmed BACC was the anchor tenant.
Chairperson Lopez mentioned the pedestrian flow from the parking lot to the
BACC and asked about the customer flow from the parking lot into the
building. He noticed that customers would have to walk across the front of
the traffic flow leaving the drive-in.
Mr. Vuksic said that was right. Cars were moving pretty slowly there
and the access out was curved on purpose to keep the traffic flow
slow. He thought that was just a part of the texture of life as you move
around through your daily activities. Get a cup of coffee and a
newspaper, people are walking and driving. It wasn't a fast area.
Commissioner Campbell asked if he had any idea what other kinds of stores
would be proposed.
Mr. Vuksic deferred the question to Rick Evans, who had been talking
with some tenants.
MR. RICK EVANS, 74-000 Country Club Drive in Palm Desert, stated
that he was the developer and owner of the project. He said the
merchants they expect to see in the remainder of the building along
with BACC was at least another sandwich parlor, maybe an Italian
cafe, small. It was only a 4,000 square foot building and BACC was
taking about 1,100 square feet of the building. They were giving them
this particular location.
As John pointed out, they were looking to come up with a real soft
drive4hru. It was intended to be one lane. John's plan actually
separated the two lanes so that the drive-thru lane would stack and
que separately. As a matter of fact, in the drawing layered under the
trees parallel to Cook Street there was a retaining wall. They raised
the elevation of it considerably so it blocked the view from the street
up to the queuing. Typically, queuing for coffee drive-thrus was in the
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range of three to five cars. The provided for the City standard of
seven. Even at the busiest Starbucks in the desert, they might get
seven or eight at the busiest time of the day for 15 minutes.
He said they invited their tenant, and they already had a signed lease
for this, to be at the meeting. He said she was the franchisee for
BACC out of Salt Lake City. He thought there was a great story about
the name and how the name was created. It was in the brochure and
thought it was a cute story and fun.
Mr. Evans stated that if Commission wanted to see an existing store,
there were two open. Christine and her partner opened one in Rancho
Mirage in the Von's shopping center across from The River. The
second one was in La Quinta in the Point Happy center. They were
both great little stores. What he liked about what they had been able
to pull together here was again, it had been their objective since they
started talking about this project a couple of years ago and they were
probably tired of hearing him repeat himself, but he asked them to
endure with him a minute. Their attitude about the merchandising of
the center is that it would be as much non -chain as they could
possibly produce. They pulled the best of the local and regional
merchants to a project like this. They had a chance to do a Starbucks,
but they wanted a big drive-thru which he said wasn't really functional.
They were very pleased to end up with BACC, Christine and her
partner. They thought it was a very exciting concept. He was even
more excited about the fact that John and his team agreed to come
and do this. He thought they had seen a lot of John's buildings and
this was completely different. They were also pleased that John was
pleased.
Mr. Evans thought it was a handsome building and if they looked at
it all the way around, the patio had the intention of being a private
patio for the people who go to BACC and the people who come to the
little cafe that would be next to them. It was intended to be on the
shady side so they would get the full benefit of being able to live in
this environment and enjoy a patio, even on a shady afternoon that is
warm.
The other tenant had a choice of two patios, either in the front or on
the side. So he thought it was a real 360 degree building. A really
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handsome building. And they endeavored to make it feel like a retail
experience without it feeling like a drive-thru. They had to be there
and get in line to know they were coming to the possibility of having
a drive-thru and fundamentally it was functional without interfering
with regular traffic because of the dual exiting lane. The drive-thru
lane could exit right onto the village main street and then the people
circulating could make a full right and que a different direction. That
was with the help of staff to be able to engineer this thing and make
this thing work out nicely and give it a real taste of what they originally
tried to do.
Mr. Evans noted that a question was asked about walking across the
traffic. The village was always designed to be a walking place as
much as they could get people to walk in the desert and in California.
There was a sidewalk that continued parallel with Main Street that had
always been in their plan. It went from the hotel at the end of Main
Street all the way down to plaza at the corner and around that corner
up to the office and the spine. They tried to continue and had
successfully continued that. With the addition of this building and the
changes they made and staying within the water and water calculation
ordinance, as well as the landscape ordinance providing a bit more
shade for people to walk in, they were really pleased with it. He
appreciated the Commission enduring his speech for the hundredth
time and thanked them.
Commissioner Tschopp asked if only the coffee shop would have a drive-in.
Mr. Evans confirmed it was just the coffee shop.
Commissioner Campbell noted that they had three employee parking spaces
close to the building.
Mr. Evans explained that in this particular case they didn't have a
problem with employee parking being next to the building because
they knew they would have to provide some close employee parking
for this many square feet. They decided to use it to help get some of
it closer, especially for stores open late at night. That was really
something they would look at subjectively at the time to see the best
place for it. Right now it was one of the plans.
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Commissioner Tanner also thought it was a good idea with the drive-thru.
Some permanence in those three parking spaces could help hinder traffic
conflicts with people backing up.
Mr. Evans concurred.
There were no other questions. Chairperson Lopez asked if anyone wished
to speak in FAVOR or OPPOSITION to the proposed project. There was no
one and the public hearing was closed. Chairperson Lopez asked for
Commission comments or action.
Commissioner Finerty thanked Mr. Evans for following through. She believed
this building was designed knowing full well the concern for a drive-thru
based on previous conversations. She thought Mr. Evans, along with Mr.
Vuksic, addressed all of the criteria for this location. She appreciated that
and thought it was a nice looking building. With the screening and open area
provided for in the ordinance, it would be acceptable.
Commissioner Campbell stated that she was happy to hear that the rest of
the building was going to be a restaurant -type use, so it would all blend in
together and not have any type of retail there, and everything would flow very
nicely. It would be very nicely camouflaged from Cook and she congratulated
Mr. Vuksic.
Commissioner Tschopp also thought it was well designed and would fit in
well. He looked forward to the project.
Action:
Commissioner Tanner concurred and was anxious to get the coffee shop
open.
Chairperson Lopez agreed. He thought the use of the site itself, the creativity
of the building and the look fell right in line with what he was looking for at
this location. It was consistent with what they asked for back in November of
2003 when they talked about where there could be a drive-thru and this
worked out just great. He congratulated them on the concept and the great
tenant. He asked for a motion.
It was moved by Commissioner Finerty, seconded by Commissioner
Campbell, approving the findings as presented by staff. Motion carried 5-0.
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It was moved by Commissioner Finerty, seconded by Commissioner
Campbell, adopting Planning Commission Resolution No. 2396 as amended,
recommending to City Council approval of Case No. PP 03-11 Amendment
#1, subject to conditions. Motion carried 5-0.
D. Case Nos. C/Z 06-02, PP 06-01 and TT 34304 - SINATRA & COOK
LLC, Applicant
(Continued from April 4, 18 and May 2, 2006)
Request for recommendation to the City Council of approval of
a change of zone, precise plan of design, tentative tract map
and Negative Declaration of Environmental Impact for 268
condominium units and a 38,000 square foot neighborhood
commercial center on 19.6 +/- acres north of Frank Sinatra
between Cook Street and College Drive, 37-755 Cook Street.
Mr. Drell said that taking the Commission's direction relative to the need for
rental housing and expanding open space in the project, the applicant
engaged in a fairly extensive redesign and wouldn't be ready until June 6.
Chairperson Lopez noted that the public hearing was open and asked if
anyone wished to speak in FAVOR or OPPOSITION. There was no one. The
public hearing was left open and Chairperson Lopez asked for Commission
action.
Action:
It was moved by Commissioner Finerty, seconded by Commissioner
Campbell, by minute motion, continuing Case Nos. C/Z 06-02, PP 06-01 and
TT 34304 to June 6, 2006. Motion carried 5-0.
E. Case No. PP 06-02 - PACIFIC POINTE PARTNERS, Applicant
Request for approval of a precise plan of design for seven
industrial buildings totaling 143,942 square feet and a Negative
Declaration of Environmental Impact as it relates thereto. The
property is located at 34-300 Gateway Drive.
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by traffic on Cook Street and the interchange, but would be able to
evolve over time as the opportunities from the university developed to
be that exciting retail environment that would complement the
university.
He believed the applicant had succeeded very well in accomplishing
that, in creating a project that should be successful given today's
market and had the ability to evolve into a different sort of project ten or
15 years from now. He could see some of the retail expanding into
some of the offices as that need and desire changed in the future.
Behind this project would be a significant residential development and
hopefully this project would be able to respond to it as it develops over
the next ten or 15 years. He thought they had a very well designed
project that could uniquely meet both the demands of today's market
and the evolving demands over the next ten or 15 years. He said there
were a few issues left unresolved so they would need to continue this
project, but in general staff's feeling was that it was a very positive
design for the site.
Mr. Smith displayed the site plan. He stated that the subject property
was bounded by Gerald Ford on the north, Cook Street on the east, the
site extended to the current access point into the Cal State site at
Berger Drive, which was signalized. Along Gerald Ford the site would
extend westerly to a point where it would align with Technology Drive to
the north which exists and provides the secondary access into the
Hampton Inn and ultimately into the industrial area to the northwest. On
the site plan that street was identified as Wonder Palms Drive. It
extended southwesterly from Gerald Ford. Berger Drive West, which on
the plan was called University, was connected. The two streets,
Wonder Palms and University, were connected by a spine road which
provided access to this project and was also the main street as part of
the residential development to the southwest, which was part of the
General Plan Update.
He noted for the record that in the staff report staff refers to the area
called Planning Area 3 of the Wonder Palms Specific Plan as being six
acres. He said it was currently 11 acres and extends along Gerald Ford
Drive. There was a parcel on an underlying map that is six acres on the
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corner, so what they were doing was looking at expanding that PA3
from 11 acres to 23.6 acres. He said he would let the developer
describe the project. In the staff report he explained that the applicant
was seeking approval for 21,000 square feet of medical office. The
applicant would prefer 30,000 square feet. He said that office was
currently proposed in retail building number three on the second floor
and in office buildings 12 and 14 located toward the interior of the site.
When staff did their calculations, they were basing it on 50% of each of
those buildings 12 and 14. In actual fact they would prefer to have it at
100%. Staff's response to that request was they needed some
quantitative information showing the relationship between office users
and retail. They knew what the offset was between hotels and
restaurants. They had dealt with that for many years; however, staff
wanted to see something quantitatively.
What the applicant had done up to this point was to provide staff with
zones of influence where the areas in various colors showed the main
parking areas for the particular uses and then the excess parking in the
fringes of those areas. That was the argument they were making at this
point; however, they were continuing to look for the quantitative studies
staff was requesting.
Mr. Smith noted there was an issue with the number of access points to
Cook Street. The site planning relative to parking complied with either
one or two access points if they didn't mix in the medical office use,
which would change the numbers. At 30,000 square feet of medical,
they would need to find or account for 60 parking spaces out of almost
1,200 spaces.
Architecture for the retail portion had been reviewed by the
Architectural Review Commission. He noted there were various colored
elevations to display. The plans received last week were included in
commission packets differed from that shown to ARC back on July 8.
The more recent efforts were done in an effort to address issues that
ARC brought up at that time.
The requested project required amendment to the Wonder Palms
Specific Plan. Staff felt it was appropriate to amend the plan to lengthen
the commercial development along Cook Street given what had
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happened since the Wonder Palms Specific Plan was adopted. With
respect to a height exception, the applicant felt the hotel would need to
be in the 37 to 44-foot height range and the most recent rendition of the
commercial buildings showed them at 38 feet in height. Staff felt the
retail buildings at 38 feet with diversified roof lines created sufficient
architectural interest to warrant the height exception. With respect to
the hotel, staff did not have building plans for it and staff suggested that
the language allow for up to 40 feet of building with City Council
confirmation.
Mr. Smith stated that the applicant was also requesting provision in the
development agreement which would allow for a 15% increase in
building size without additional hearing. Staff was suggesting that the
language in the development agreement define a minor modification as
an increase of up to 10% as being acceptable without additional
hearings assuming that the project complied with all other provisions.
Based on the commission's action two weeks ago on the Sares Regis
project in that the commission was clear that they didn't care to be
considering actual projects at the time they were considering the
general plan, staff was recommending a continuance to October 21 if
that was still the commission's position.
Commissioner Jonathan noted that the staff report indicated that all
offices would be single -story. Mr. Smith clarified that the 14 office
buildings were all single stories. There were 2 two-story retail buildings
toward the center of the site and on the second floor there would be
offices.
Commissioner Tschopp noted that there was commercial shown to the
south and on Frank Sinatra to the west there was a big piece of
property that wasn't identified. Mr. Smith clarified that the street on the
left side of the plan that they were looking at was Portola. Mr. Drell said
that the east side of Portola was land purchased by the Redevelopment
Agency for a possible third Desert Willow golf course.
Commissioner Jonathan noted that staff didn't mention the extension of
the Freeway Overlay area and any exceptions or changes. Mr. Smith
explained that currently it was 11 acres in PA3 and staff was
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suggesting that it be expanded to 23.6 acres further to the south to
align with University/Berger to the south. Staff felt it was warranted to
expand the commercial along Cook Street for the reasons that Mr. Drell
mentioned. Commissioner Jonathan asked if that would facilitate drive-
thru restaurants on Pads 3 and 4. Mr. Smith said that was correct.
Wonder Palms allowed drive-thrus.
Chairperson Campbell opened the public hearing and asked the
applicant to address the commission.
MR. RICK EVANS, 71-800 Highway 111 Suite A224 in Rancho
Mirage, addressed the commission. He explained that he is a
partner in Alliance Retail Partners, the developers of the project.
He said they were very new to the desert and just moved from
the Newport Beach area and made their home here in the desert
because they were so excited about this project.
He said that the project has grown with them over the last year in
working with staff, Mr. Drell, Mr. Smith and a lot of other staff
people. The project was intended to encompass the entire 23
acres as a master plan kind of project. Using a power point
presentation, he showed the commission the project location and
the surrounding area. The next picture showed an overlay of
their project with the proposed General Plan so the commission
could see the relationship between the project and the future
General Plan.
They endeavored to create a mixed use office, hotel and retail
development along the corridor, focused on the freeway and the
university traffic. He thought the residential would be a very
important aspect to their community that they intended to serve
with the project.
One important thing about the project was that it was organized
by a main street. He said they tried to pay attention to the master
plan with regard to residential access to the project. He pointed
out the office zone, the hotel zone, the retail zone and they were
organized by main street. He noted that there was no central
parking area. They intended for people to access the project and
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION SEPTEMBER 2. 2003
come into the project in a way that they could walk and/or drive
to their different destinations. He said it was a little difficult to do
in the desert because of the heat. But they also thought there
was plenty of time during the day when people would traverse as
many as five or six different shops or even walk from the office
space to the retail for lunch.
He showed where they thought the pedestrian traffic zones
would be in the project.
Commissioner Jonathan asked if main street was a real street.
Mr. Evans explained that it was a street with parking on it. It was
intended to be an organizing street that people could drive down
and park head in. It was intended to set up an organization of
main street where buildings would be on both sides of the street,
sidewalks were on both sides and they would be looking at the
flavor of an old downtown with buildings that evolve over time.
Commissioner Jonathan said that in the other drawings he saw it
looked like it was just a lane through the parking and not a street with
sidewalks.
Mr. Evans said he wanted to correct the record in one regard.
The office in GLA for the garden office one story was 130,000
square feet. The second floor office above the retail buildings
was 28,000 square feet. Rounding the numbers, he said the
retail GLA was 90,000 square feet and the hotel was 140 keys.
Regarding phasing, he thought it was important for everyone to
know early on that they intend to phase the project. Phase 1
would consist of about 50,000 square feet of office and 40,000
square feet of retail.
Currently access was intended to be from Cook Street and
Gerald Ford.
At the hotel end of the site was the Berger/University end of the
site. The hotel was pictured as an "I" shaped building with a
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swimming pool in the back and two restaurants in front to support
not only the hotel guests, but the other guests. Those were the
two sites they saw as sit down restaurants and freestanding
pads.
He showed the commission a picture of what they thought the
exterior of the hotel would look like in the future. The height
elevation changes were intended to give them some articulation
to the building. It wasn't for building volume as much as it was for
just giving the building some stature and prominence. He
showed a picture of the elevation views of the restaurants. In this
particular case there would be arcades and shading in between.
Commissioner Jonathan asked if the hotel area was a numbered
phase.
Mr. Evans said no, it was just called the hotel phase. They
thought it would come along with the second or third phases of
the retail. Right now they were seeing the hotel market as being
a little soft. He said that he and Mr. Drell had discussed the
possibility of another retail use showing up. So in the
evolutionary conversation mentioned in the staff's introduction,
they felt there were some evolutionary ideas in the project so it
could end up being something completely different down the
road. While they hoped it wasn't a place holder because they
were actively trying to market it for a hotel and the hotel uses
they were looking at were very much highway style hotel,
business hotel. They didn't want to be in the resort business or
compete with that business. They didn't have a golf course or
those things, so they saw it as a limited service and maybe
limited service with suites. It would be a very nice, very well
placed moderate priced hotel. He indicated that he would turn
the floor over to Chuck Crookall, the President of Shaw
Properties and he was their office developer of choice on this
project.
MR. CHUCK CROOKALL, Shaw Properties, 160 Newport Center
Drive in Newport Beach, addressed the commission. He clarified
that he wasn't the President of Shaw Properties, but he would
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accept it. He outlined the component which he said was the
totality of the single story office component. They intended to
build 130,000 square feet of gross area in 14 buildings, all single
story. As Mr. Evans pointed out when they were doing the
phasing, they recognized early out the synergy between the
office component and the retail component was very important.
Although the area was going to be fabulous over time, right now
if they drove there and looked at it, they loved the location, but
there was still a little pioneering going on. Being able to go in and
provide an appropriate amount of office space and retail space to
kick it off would work very well together.
He indicated that one of the comments made at the Architectural
Review Committee, he thought that the office people that would
reside there for daytime activities were going to try to take
advantage of the retail element. What they tried to show were
walkways and shaded areas that people could get to and from
and then feed down to the covered retail areas. He showed a
picture of the entry on Gerald Ford Drive and Building Nos. 10
and 12. Then the view of Building Nos. 14 and 12 coming in off
of Cook. He said there was a trellised area that would lead down
to the retail area on the corner. He said that area was a total of
ten acres that would be mapped. The parking would be four
spaces per 1,000 square feet per code.
Mr. Evans stated that they were trying to walk the commission
through the project from the hotel to the office and then back
down to the retail because they thought it was important for the
commission to understand or at least get an introduction to the
pieces. He said the next set of pictures was intended to show
them the layout of main street as well as the architecture of the
retail buildings which they did in a great amount of detail. He said
they intended to have awnings or some kind of canvas structure
or cover of that kind which was shown on the architectural
renderings. Some areas were designated as tree -shaded
walkways as opposed to mechanical.
Mr. Evans showed a picture of Main Street and explained that it
was intended to be as much a walking street as it was a
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connector. They saw it as a connector / organizer for people
walking from the hotel. They could walk on either side of the
street. One of the comments from ARC was for them to add a
little bit more pedestrian -like feel for their fast food pads which
they made significant strides on and they still intended to do
some more work in that particular area. From the plan in front of
them, all of the fast food pads had plazas or patio areas to
enhance and keep a free -flowing main street free -flowing kind of
feel without it being an in -line kind of a building. He thought they
had come up with a very unusual, very street -like downtown kind
of feel from the street lights down to way the sidewalks were
organized.
When they started planning this site, they were asked by staff to
insure that they had a feel of the gateway into the city at the
intersection of Cook and Gerald Ford. So they took it upon
themselves to not cover the corner with buildings that were too
close together and to offer a view corridor right up the middle that
was bracketed by landscaping, trees and a real strong feeling of
corner and views right through the site. He described the
buildings at the corner as bookend buildings. He indicated that
they added two architectural towers and they weren't really
looking at them to be signage towers, but saw them as an
architectural treatment. They thought it was important to not only
bring the buildings up visually a little higher, and it was one of the
things that Mr. Smith brought out about these buildings being a
little bit higher than was allowed in the current planning area, but
they thought it was important to give better articulation to the
buildings down below with towers.
He showed the commission another rendering of the plaza. He
said the corner of Cook and Gerald Ford they had taken
extremely seriously in their planning. They had a meandering
sidewalk coming down both sides. There would be a small water
feature, something that gave them a feeling of water and there
were three spots of water that stuck up in the air that were
bracketed by some palm trees and some other trees. It was
intended to give another overture to the street. That was
something important and a special place to be.
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION SEPTEMBER 2. 2003
He thought another important aspect was there weren't many
places where people wanted grass. He noted that he was a
grass lover. They opted to have little depressed grass areas
where people could sit and lay in the grass and enjoy lunch. It
wouldn't be flat, but would be sort of comfortable to have picnics
on. As someone walks up the ramp from the street intersection,
the project got a little higher and that was where the fountain
would be with landscaping. Then they would come across sail -
like awnings that bracket both buildings. The awnings were
intended to be big shade factors and very colorful. They didn't
know what the colors would be. They were portraying them in
blues because they really liked some of the warm desert colors
that came out from the mountains. The lavenders and some of
the earthier blues, taupes and sand colors to give it a lot more of
that visual strength.
He showed a view within the plaza looking back at the shops, the
kind of trellises they would have around the plaza and the
seating. He said they planned for the entire plaza to be DG. Not
concrete, not asphalt or pavers. He worked with a restaurant for
a number of years that had been able to use DG very
successfully in patios and around food eating areas. It was very
comfortable and was even more comfortable when not
delineated by concrete so it became a place to look at. They
wanted it to be a place to enjoy sitting with tables and chairs on
the DG surface. They actually experimented with some ideas
they thought worked exceptionally well and gave them an
interesting color pallet to deal with the desert palettes on the
ground rather than a harder surface.
Commissioner Tschopp asked what Mr. Evans was referring to when
he said DG.
Mr. Evans said that meant decomposed granite. It could be seen
in landscaping zones, but this would be a little bit finer grade and
it got compacted with a vibrator and became very firm. He
thought it was very much like the desert. So there would be a lot
of pots and a lot of character in the plaza, not just the normal
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION SEPTEMBER 2. 2003
pavers seen around in projects and shopping centers in So.
California today. And it wasn't experimental. He had seen it used
in several very high traffic restaurants, particularly the Houston's
chain. In Newport Beach it was in the Gulf Stream Restaurant
and they used it in their chain in Rutherford, Napa and a couple
of other places and it had been very successful. He said it felt
like a patio. It didn't just feel like a commercial concrete zone.
He pointed out their first entrance on Gerald Ford and indicated
they had future locations for entrances off of Wonder Palms
Drive. He said they still had issues with Public Works with regard
to entrances. Public Works asked them to consider a single
entrance into the project. He said they had resisted it only to the
extent that they think the project worked better with the dual
entrances, but they did want to see and test what that looked like
and worked like and how it organized the main street, what it did
for them and what concerns they might have from it. One of the
things Public Works asked them to do, which they just finished
that day, was to look at their traffic report / traffic study and
advance it to the 20/20 version that was in the GPA. Neither
version was really overwhelmingly supported by the traffic study.
There wasn't a material amount of difference between the
current version and the future version. So it seemed to them that
there was some argument as to whether or not one or two was
the right thing to do from the Cook traffic standpoint.
From the project standpoint, they continued to believe that the
two entrance version worked better. They liked it because it
brought customers in for the hotel, got them to park quickly, it
wasn't frustrating on the exit, and it was the same way with the
office customer. They also asked in the two entrance version,
which had been modified from their original, that the entrances
be right -in, right -out and left -in for two of them and a right -in and
right -out only on the other one. They still needed to work through
those questions with Public Works.
He repeated that the traffic study didn't support or invalidate
either version. He said that when they studied the single
entrance version, there were some things about it that were very
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION SEPTEMBER 2, 2003
nice. One example was they would be able to add a little more
square footage to the project. The other thing that was nice
about the project was they liked the way it organized main street
a little bit differently. It required an entrance for the hotel so that
people coming up from the freeway could make their right, right -
in and that worked out pretty good. When the hotel people
exited, they could exit to the spine road, turn and be out. So it
was a nice plan as well. He said they needed to have the
conversation with Public Works and try to work it out for the best
plan.
His only comment about it at this point was that it was a toss up
between the two. He thought the two entrance plan organized
the traffic for the customer better and they would be happier with
the project when they were there. The marketing people talking
to clients preferred the two entrances. They hadn't resolved it
and they just had to figure out which way to go. Today if asked
which one he preferred after talking to their marketing people, he
would much rather have the two entrance plan. As he told Public
Works, if there was a demonstrable safety issue with either one
of them, they should go with the one that was safest.
The other thing he wanted to talk about was the parking Mr.
Smith talked about and the influence zones for parking. He had
been fortunate enough to be in the business for a long time and
had developed a lot of retail projects around the country. Some
of his most favorites were in So. California and Irvine. In those
particular experiences he learned more about parking than he
ever thought he would learn. There was still a big curve out there
for everyone. Parking was without a doubt a big question. Mr.
Smith asked them last week about parking and how they could
come up with a methodology for dealing with the parking for
medical office to justify the 30,000 square feet. They heard from
a lot of people that it was a sensitive issue.
He said they did a parking count with the architect and it was
very simple. He showed the areas that were designed for parking
for the single story offices. He pointed out the buildings that they
were requesting as garden office. That was about 22,000 square
feet. Those 64 spaces in that zone were what he called in the
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donut hole because the area below it was parking for retail at five
spaces per 1,000 square feet. If everyone was there at the same
time to use the place, based on what they all knew about parking
right now, there would actually be a donut hole of about 60-80 or
50-80 spaces that were out there.
He noted that doctors' offices close at noon and people were out
of there at 11:30 a.m. and they didn't get back in until 1:30 p.m.
So the retail to medical office overlap was very small during the
peak for this project which was primarily going to be lunch time.
For the medical office they were requesting and the two-story
retail in the other zone, the main street zone of retail parking
influence with parking at five spaces to 1,000 square feet, again
they had excess parking primarily due to the fact that they had a
very time of day helper when it came to parking in the hotel. It
was a very simplistic point of view and one developers used a lot
when doing mixed use projects. The 30,000 square feet that they
were asking for was less parking than that demonstrated on the
plan. He said he owed Mr. Smith a parking lot study that was
done by ICSC and ULI.
Mr. Evans asked for any questions and indicated that they were
present to request approval of the project. He knew there were
some conditions that they would probably have to levy on the
project. Wonder Palms was almost 50% covered by a current
development agreement. Staff said consistently that the
intersection was going to be commercial and not residential. The
residential delineation on it was an old plan and not the current
GPA. He said it matched the current GPA to the nines and they
knew that the conditions were probably going to be the entrance
conditions for Public Works and working with Mr. Smith and Mr.
Drell on the medical office parking ratio and justifying that. He
said they knew they had some questions that they had to go
back to ARC about. He thought they probably should have gone
back to ARC before they went before the Planning Commission,
but they were under the impression that they were going to do
that after the Council meeting. This was a project that from a
design standpoint would not stand still. It would be up front,
objective and approach the customer, the city and everything
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they had learned over the year was important about the Cook
Street gateway.
Commissioner Finerty thanked Mr. Evans for his presentation and
explained that the reason she was not commenting was because they
had not yet gone through the general plan amendment process. They
hadn't heard testimony in favor of what the residents and citizens of
Palm Desert would like. She said she would be more comfortable
commenting when they saw the project back on October 21.
Commissioner Jonathan concurred. The lack of response was a
function of the time and the fact that they had been there four hours,
but it was also the fact that Mr. Evans referred to the new general plan.
They didn't have a new general plan and the commission didn't know
what that would be yet. They only had the existing one and didn't know
where the new general plan would go. It was an unknown. Mr. Evans
might have been talking to others, whether it was to the Council or
other levels who have opinions or expectations, but from the
commission's perspective, they didn't have that. Once they crossed that
bridge, they would have typical concerns. He did with regard to some of
the parking issues, internal circulation issues, the access and one of
which was whether to have one or two access points on Cook, but
there were also some other access issues. Some parts of the design he
really liked, but others looked a little too Orange County/Newport Beach
which were lovely communities, but that wasn't Palm Desert and they
needed to perhaps find a balance of something that was refreshing to
the desert and didn't necessarily need to be the same thing they
already had, but in his opinion they didn't necessarily want to go
overboard in terms of creating more of a metropolis type retail center
either. So there were some design issues and issues about the two and
three stories.
Commissioner Tschopp said if the applicant was asking for opinions, if
this was zoned commercial and if the applicant was just looking for
comments, not knowing what the general plan would be, he thought it
would be appropriate to get some feedback. The applicant was
obviously spending some time and effort on it. He thought it was
appropriate for the commission to give general type comments. First,
he hoped they would change the name Wonder Palms.
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION SEPTEMBER 2. 2003
Mr. Evans said they actually had been waiting to find out what
the name would be on the GPA. The name was currently a place
holder.
Mr. Drell explained that Wonder Palms Drive was a historic name for
either Frank Sinatra or Gerald Ford.
Mr. Evans said they picked it up only because of the existing
development agreement.
Giving general comments, Commissioner Tschopp said if commercial
was going in there, University Drive that lines up with Cal State, he
wasn't too enthralled by the lack of any real corner designation there or
any kind of architectural element on that corner. The City and the State
have a huge investment there in the Cal State campus and high hopes
for it so he hoped that what went on across the corner would mirror that
on those corners. The way Cook Street is set up now, he didn't think it
was very pedestrian friendly so people coming out of that university
would probably drive their cars across unless something was done to
encourage pedestrians. Mr. Drell said they discussed at some
appropriate time installing a pedestrian bridge across Cook Street
because Cook Street would be a virtual freeway with six lanes. When
there was enough traffic from the university to warrant it, that's when
they would consider it.
Mr. Evans said they had actually discussed ideas about the
sidewalk and he wasn't against the meandering sidewalk along
Cook Street, but it seemed to him that where they were and what
they were doing there, that the sidewalk really belonged in front
of the shops to encourage people to walk across the street to
walk in front of the shops. To walk across the street to walk in
between the buildings and street wasn't as much fun as walking
slightly up the curb and down the main street, so they had talked
about it at ARC and it was an element they needed to get a
handle on.
Regarding pedestrians across the walk ways, Commissioner Tschopp
commented that knowing how that worked in some of the other
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developments in the city, they come up to those driveways and entry
from Cook and it just became a barrier so somehow that needed to be
addressed. He knew that the university spent tremendous amounts of
time looking at the winds out there, which could be extreme and hoped
Mr. Evans did the same thing at this location because that would in
some ways dictate the architecture. At certain times of the year, that's
one of the worst places in the valley.
The hotel was only a concept, but it didn't do much for him
architecturally at this time. It looked to him like a very cheap hotel and
being across the gateway he hoped they would see something a little
better architecturally.
He also noted that it looked like Main Street was actually phase two
and not phase one.
Mr. Evans said it began in Phase 1.
Commissioner Tschopp noted that the real gist of it was not done until
Phase 2.
Mr. Evans said that was correct.
Commissioner Tschopp thought the Main Street concept was great. He
really liked that and hoped that somehow in Phase 1 it was
incorporated a little more because sometimes things got delayed for
years and he'd like to get that pedestrian access going. He asked how
wide the walkways would be throughout the project. He hoped they
truly looked like walkways and encouraged people to walk and not
where they would be fighting bumpers of cars and only a few trees.
Mr. Evans said they were 20 feet on both sides. He said they
really tried to put space in that zone so they had the overhangs,
the awnings, the shade, and the stores were sort of tucked back
a little bit and then they had more of the street scene in front of
that.
Commissioner Tschopp commented that some of the best areas in
Palm Desert like on El Paseo and in other cities, were the ones where
people could walk down and people were outside dining. He hoped Mr.
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION SEPTEMBER 2. 2003
Evans really encouraged that because there was nothing more fun than
to people watch sometimes. He also hoped that the University was in
the loop.
Mr. Evans said they had two or three meetings with Peter Wilson
before he left and they had his support throughout the project
and they worked with him on some of the access questions and
access issues. They also had worked with the Cornerstone
Development people behind them and the Hampton Inn person
across the street. He said they saw themselves as their own little
neighborhood that they were trying to nurture up and grow and
build. The more people they could talk to the better off they were
and the better they felt.
Commissioner Tschopp commented that in a lot of the projects the
concepts were great, but then sometimes putting them into actual
practice didn't work. He thought the Main Street and the pedestrian
friendly concept was very good if the General Plan review went that
way.
Mr. Evans thanked him for his comments.
Commissioner Lopez said he found it a very exciting project. The
potential, the vision, and the possibilities if everything fell into place. He
pointed out that the entrance or gateway to the city on Cook Street
would be pretty neat. Regarding hotel occupancy and usage, if in fact
the project was full and people were there, it would be a destination. It
would be a draw and a destination very similar to the River. The River
has driven occupancy up at Rancho Las Palmas Resort and it
increased 5% after the River opened. People who wanted to be at that
location stayed at Rancho Las Palmas. It could be the same thing with
the proposed hotel. He echoed the concern regarding the look of the
hotel. He thought it looked very simple, but was something they were
going to work on.
Mr. Evans said they had a hard time designing it. He said the
one thing that had been thought through a lot on the hotel was
the exterior shape and it was primarily dictated by wanting to
stay as close to within the guidelines as they possibly could and
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still keep some articulation. They saw a lot of stone in the right
places. He said they actually found some better stone than the
cultured stone. They found real stone in Arizona that was done
like cultured stone that was really fabulous. When they got into
the up close locations, it was a product that they really wanted to
use rather than the cultured stone that always looked fake up
close. They were looking at a lot of products that were different in
the market. They suggested to Public Works and Planning a
couple of weeks ago a different kind of asphalt material that
allowed for retention of water within a parking lot that was very
interesting and positive. They were starting to look at things like
that. They thought their DG idea was a different idea and
worked. It looked good, it was easy to take care of, it was
maintainable and people would feel like they were in a desert
park scene. They had a ways to go on some of their architecture.
He said he was very excited about the project.
Chairperson Campbell stated that the site had a lot of potential and a
lot of good features to it. Regarding the retail buildings on Cook Street,
they would be seeing the back side of the buildings. She asked how
they were going to draw customers into the center.
Mr. Evans said they tried to make the backs of the buildings on
Cook Street and Gerald Ford look like the fronts of the buildings.
They had gone to a great deal of effort to give it character in an
unusual way. He showed renderings and said they were
basically fake facades. The idea was to incorporate storefront -
like signage rather than someone plastering or nailing a neon
sign to the back of the building and organizing it with awnings
and columns. He said ARC really recommended that they try to
keep them open. The windows were really show windows and
were not really windows unless there was a restaurant and then
they could have real windows that faced out. He said they could
even be murals. So all along Cook and Gerald Ford on all of their
buildings that face those streets, that element was going to be
incorporated. He said they expect the corner buildings to be
restaurants with seating and umbrellas where people could sit,
enjoy and relax.
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Chairperson Campbell thought the feature on the corner of Gerald Ford
and Cook was a very nice feature and she said there was some nice
public art to go there.
Chairperson Campbell asked if anyone wished to speak in FAVOR or
OPPOSITION. There was no one. Chairperson Campbell left the public
hearing open and asked for a motion.
Action:
It was moved by Commissioner Finerty, seconded by Chairperson
Campbell, by minute motion continuing Case Nos. GPA 03-07, C/Z 03-
10, PP 03-11, TPM 31515 and DA 97-2 Amendment #2 to October 21,
2003. Motion carried 5-0.
The commission thanked the applicant for a good presentation.
IX. MISCELLANEOUS
None.
X. COMMITTEE MEETING UPDATES
A. ART IN PUBLIC PLACES
No meeting.
B. CIVIC CENTER STEERING COMMITTEE
No meeting.
C. LANDSCAPE COMMITTEE
No meeting.
D. PROJECT AREA 4 COMMITTEE
No meeting.
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Chairperson Campbell announced that the public hearing was still open asked requested the applicant to
address the Commission.
14IR. RICK EVA ,TS, 57-745 Interlaken, La Quinta, stated that he is one of the project owners,
and noted that since the last hearing, much has been accomplished, and he would echo Mr.
Drell's comments. 'The design team has attempted to open up the plaza, lower the pavilion
buildings and offer a stronger vista throughout the project, and then line up an arcade in the
middle, and also present a main street swell -out appearance. Regarding the issue of medical
office parking, the previous design was short by 60 spaces based on code requirements for
medical office uses. At that time, he pointed out that access parking of 40 "swing" spaces
nearby on the site would be available during the day because of the staggered peak hours of the
various uses on the site. Since that time, the design team has lound another 23 additional
parking spaces, so instead of being 60 spaces short per die code, it is now an issue of only 37
spaces, and he believes it may be possible to reduce that to an issue of 29 spaces.
MR. DAN ALLRED with American Realty Trust, 1800 Valley View Lane, Suite 300 in Dallas,
Texas, addressed the Commission. He mentioned that his company is selling this property to
Mr. Evans, and the original acquisition was to be 1004n, within the Development Agreement;
but through still and the GPAC, they were directed to create something more fitting for an
entry to die City, and that is what the design team has attempted to do. It was his hope that
since this project is not subject to the moratorium that the project could be processed.
MR. ALIBABA FARZENEH. 39-902 Newcastle in Palm Desert, stated that the project looks
sensible and should be approved.
Mr. Drell stated that staff has not yet prepared a resolution of approval, but it would he useful to provide
the applicant with feedback since there was very little feedback at the previous hearing.
Chairperson Campbell commented that it is a wonderful project, and she is glad to see progress toward
meeting the medical parking requirements. 'The hotel architecture does not appear very impressive
compared to the rest of the project, and she noted that the ARC has requested charges in that regard,
but overall, it was an excellent project. She asked if the first phase will be retail, followed by office.
Mr. Evans replied that Phase One will be comprised of 55,000 square feet of office and
approximately .10,000 square feet of retail. all nestled in the corner. He added that he
appreciated the Tact that the ARC did not approve all the architecture of the hotel because the
believes as the project evolves, the architecture will be further augmented based upon a blend
of the hotel brand's particular style of architecture with the architecture of the rest of the
project. y1r. Evans indicated that he has been meeting with several hotel developers, and they
are comfortable with that direction.
Chairperson Canpbell commented favorably on the developer's agreement to having only one el uy off
of Cook Street, as it is a major improvement.
Commissioner Tschopp asked if there will be access on Berger Drive with Phase 2.
Mr. Evans replied that the timing of the hotel phase with the retail phase may force sonic part
of tlic retail for Phase 3 to inure forward prematurely because he didn't want that to be a
desert access; however, he has planned an access off Berger Drive, so should that be an issue.
then Berger would be compacted all the way up to the intersection with the spine road and that
access implemented to SCIVV the hotel. The Cook Street access is intended to serve Phase 1
Duly, so if the hotel comes on line prior to Phase 2 retail, then access Ibr the hotel could be
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION 6:00 P.M. OCTOBER 21. 2003
provided via Berger Drive a that end of the site. and it would be right in, right out at that
particular entrurce.
Commissioner Tscltopp felt that the design of the project is moving in the right direction.
Commissioner Finerty asked how many additional drive-thru's arc being. requested.
Mr. Evans retnarked that three additional chive-thiu's our being requested, with one on Gerald
Ford and two on Cook Street.
Commissioner Finerty asked what type of restaurants and hotel are anticipated.
Mr. Evans replied that he anticipates traditional last food restaurants such as Mc1)onalds,
although he is also meeting with a coffee purveyor as well. The type hotel has always been
designed as a suite style hotel rather than a resort style, so he anticipates something along tite
lines of a Hilton Gardens with no dining room.
CommissionerJonathan stated he is concerned that granting a reduction in required parking may lead to
insufficient parking when the project is built out and the businesses arc successful; so he preferred that
the required parking be provided, especially with regard to medical office uses, which could start as a
less intensive medical use. such as a cosmetic surgical suite, but later evolve into a more intrusive urgent
care facility.
Mr. Evans replied that there is a point at which the quantity of the parking needs to be before it
can be successful, and based on his experience, anything under 600 is not a mixed use parking
lot, while anything over 1,100 generally works very nicely. This project will be an all -season
center, and the medical office will work as long as it is strategically located.
CommissionerJonathan suggested that more detail be presented on the corner clement because it is a
highly visual and important component its terms of the entrance to the City.
Mr. Evans replied that they arc considering whether or not to add a water feature, and the
design team is also working on windows, landscaping and various other details for the corner
element.
Commissioner Jonathan recommended that careful consideration be given to the project's internal
circulation, especially due to the large size of the project.
Mr. Evans indicated the intent is that the internal circulation lend itself to village type use where
patrons can park in one space and then access all businesses on foot.
Commissioner Fit crty echoed C:ommissionerjouathan's concerns regarding harking and the gateway to
the City, and indicates] that her idea of a gateway to the City is not three last food drive -dim restaur.uits.
She indicated that there is a lack of coffee shop type restaurants in town, and noted the enormous
success of Mimi's in Rancho Mirage.
Mr. Evans directed the Commission's attention to the iwo pads in !font of the hotel and
indicated that one is intended to house a sit-down lope restaurant which serves three meals per
day, and the other is intended to be a sit-down type restaurant which serves one meal a day.
The two pavilion buildings will most likely house sit-down restaurants. 'Thus, he believed this
project will provide the type of restaurants to which Commissioner Finerty is referring.
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION 6:00 P.M. OCTOBER 21. 2003
Action:
Commissioner Fiucrty suggested that the developer consider including a CiamJumper restaurant, as she
believes that type of restaurant is lacking in Palm Desert, and would most likely be quite successful.
Commissioner Lopez expressed concern about use of too much fast loud, and liked the collet shop
concept. I-Ie noted that high winds are a problem in this area, so wind needs to be taken into
consideration. He believe( this project had great potential.
Mr. Evans noted that the design team includes a «'ind consultant. He commented that his
anxiety is that, because he is a small developer 44hU creates centers for small businesses, and he
cannot really commence design development until the Commission approves the application,
and time is running out, so if this project cannot be approved in a reasonable amount of time,
he will be forced to abandon it. His resources are limited, and he hoped they don't expire
before (he project is approved. Legally, this project is not subject to moratorium. He ul:ged the
Commission to consider this project outside die realm of the General Plan Amendment. even
though the Commission has already indicated it (lots not want to do that. Even though some
of tlic Commissioners may not wallt last food, he believed it is a necessary retail component.
I-Ie hoped that the Commission would be ready to approve the project on November 114.li.
Mr. Drell noted that staffs recommendation is to continue the case to November (4th.
It was moved by Commissioner Lopez, seconded by Cotnmissioner'1'schopp to continue Case Nos.
GPA 03-07. CZ 03-10, P 03-11, TPM 31515 and DA 03-03, to November 1., 2003 at 6:00 p.m.
Motion carried 5-0.
F. Case Nos. C/Z 03-13 and TPM 31730 RBF CONSULTING, Applicant
Request for approval of a zone ckuigc from PR-5 (planned
residential, live dwelling units per acre) to PCD (planned
community development) and a tentative parcel map dividing 306
:'- acres into five lots. Property is generally located south of
Gerald Ford Drive between Portola Avenue and Cook Street, 37-
500 Cook Street.
Mr. Drell reported that the change of zone and the parcel map relates to the master plan which was
presented to the Commission at its last meeting as pout of the General Plan discussion, which has now
been incorporated into the staff recommended General Plan Land f ire. Based upon the Commission's
previous comments, he didn't believe the Commission was prepared to approve anything relative to this
master plan. At the applicant's request, the parcel map has been submitted with the condition that the
applicant cannot record it until the master plan is approved, although he was not sure what that does for
the applicant because it would not be possible to sell parcels until the map is recorded. He stated stallis
supportive of the master plan and is willing to recommend approval of the parcel map if the
Commission is in concurrence with the land use for thal master plan. Typically the master plan is
approved first and the parcel map is the implementing tool of the master plan. Short of that, Its
presumed the Commission preferred a continuance.
Mr. Drell indicated that the developer has worked very hard to respond to GPAC's desires and lcelings
about die importance of creating a variety of housing so that people who can only alh)i(1 a lot which is
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4, 2003
None.
VII. CONSENT CALENDAR
None.
VIII. PUBLIC HEARINGS
Anyone who challenges any hearing matter in court may be limited to raising
only those issues he, she or someone else raised at the public hearing
described herein, or in written correspondence delivered to the Planning
Commission at, or prior to, the public hearing.
A. Case Nos. GPA 03-07, C/Z 03-10, PP 03-11, TPM 31�15 and DA 03-
03 - RICK EVANS, Applicant
(Continued from September 2 and October 21, 2003)
Request for approvai of a general plan amendment from low
density residential to planned commercial; a change of zone
from PR-5 (planned residential, five units per acre) to PCD
(planned community development); and a precise plan and
tentative parcef map for a commercial / office project at the
southwest corner of Cook Street and Gerald Ford Drive, 37-
001 Cook Street. Said project inciudes 111,880 square feet of
retail (including drive-thru restaurants), a three-story hotel with
up to 140 rooms; and one-story garden offices totaling 122,000
square feet. Project is generally located at the southwest
corner of Cook Street and Gerald Ford Drive described as a
portion of 653-390-062.
Planning Manager Steve Smith stated he had passed out an updated
Reso(ution for the Commission's consideration. The changes were basically
reflected on page 2 relative to the size of the commercial aspect of the
project, which had been reduced. The number of hotel rooms had been
reduced from 140 to 130. The square footage difference on the retail portion
was a reduction of approximately 1,000 square feet. Several other
typographical corrections had been made as well.
He noted that Mr. Evans had given him a letter requesting some changes
relative to street widths and other public works issues. A meeting had been
held this aftemoon with Public Works and Mr. Evans' engineer, and he asked
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4. 2003
City Engineer Mr. Greenwood to explain what had been agreed upon at that
meeting.
Mr. Greenwood stated that a layout had been distributed to the Commission,
and it basically presented the conditions of approval in a picture format. The
conditions had been revised a number of times, and staff felt it would be
better to show them on a plan. Essentially what had been worked out at the
meeting were minor details. He said there were several things the
Commission should be aware of. One was the fact that this project does
accommodate six lanes on Gerald Ford, which was a major finding of the
General Plan Traffic Study, that Gerald Ford needed to be six lanes. Cook
Street also needs to be six lanes, and that was accommodated as well. The
free right from Gerald Ford onto Cook was accommodated, and that was
shown on the plan. One of the issues that might need to be discussed was
the bus bay on Cook Street. Sunline has indicated they want to see it just
about where the street is labeled "Cook Street" where there was a bubble in
the curb line on the west side on the plan. Neither the developer nor Public
Works staff felt that was the appropriate spot, and it was felt the bus bay
should be just south of Berger Drive. The reason was that from staff
perspective, locating the bus bay within the weaving area from that
acceleration lane coming off the free right and within the right turn lane for
the project driveway was not really an ideal location. That location would
also tend to draw pedestrians across the street mid-block, and this was not
really a good idea on a street with a 50 mile an hour speed limit. Locating
the bus stop south of Berger Drive would put the bus stop very near to a
signalized intersection and would be a better location, and he thought the
developer agreed with that.
The one issue that they tried to resolve at today's meeting was the alignment
of Berger Drive with the existing Berger Drive on the east side of Cook
Street. He had not had a chance to review this layout presented, but the
engineer said that he thinks he has it worked out. He said it looked like it
was possible that this might work. However, there was one issue for the
Commission to be aware of, and that was that the College has a 29-foot wide
center median on Berger Circle Drive east of Cook Street. This plan reduces
that nose down to about five feet. It goes from being an entry statement kind
of inedian down to a finger of concrete. The way it was presented, there was
something of an impact that needs to be judged whether it is acceptable or
proper. Other than that, he felt everything here was pretty straight forward
with nothing unexpected. He also mentioned that the all of the improvements
on Gerald Ford and Cook Street would be with Phase I of this project.
Technology, Spine Road, and Berger Drive would all be completed with
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4, 2003
Phase II of this project, and this project was a multi-phase project, with two,
three, or four phases. The Spine Road improvements would not happen up
front, but they would happen at the first buifding on Phase II.
Commissioner Tschopp asked whether it was incumbent on the Commission
to accept the Sunline recommendation or if the Commission could make a
statement that it does not feel it is correct in that area.
Mr. Greenwood responded that he felt staff could work with them. He said
it was an interesting situation because it is the City's Public Works
Department that locates the bus turnouts, and Sunline locates the bus stops.
It has happened where the bus stop has not been located at the bus turnout,
specificafly on Washington Street, although generally they do follow the bus
turnout with a bus stop.
Mr. Drell noted that it was his understanding there is not currently bus service
at all on Cook Street.
Mr. Greenwood responded that there was service to the College on a very
limited schedule.
Mr. Drell added that apparently Sunline picks up almost no one. He
anticipated in this area that the level of service and location of bus stops will
change significantly as it devefops and as the demand develops. lt will
probably not be known entirely where the appropriate bus stops are until that
happens and we see the final design of the University on the other side and
the final design of the rest of the master plan that is going to occur to the
south. In the interim, it was best to wait and see what makes the most sense
and once there actually is a route designed to know which side of the street,
where it's going, etc., before a lot of permanent street improvements are
made.
Mr. Smith noted that the City Attorney's office was working on an amended
development agreement which will incarporate most of the findings contained
in this resolution. That was still coming, but it would be presented to the
Council as part of the recommended action.
Mr. Drell stated that one of the unresolved issues was reconciling the parking
supply relative to the medical offices, and the applicant had agreed to reduce
the medical office entitlement down to meet the parking supply, and it was
now in compliance. Staff and the applicant believed there will be joint use
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4, 2003
Phase II of this project, and this project was a multi-phase project, with two,
three, or four phases. The Spine Road improvements would not happen up
front, but they would happen at the first building on Phase II.
Commissioner Tschopp asked whether it was incumbent on the Commission
to accept the Sunline recommendation or if the Commission could make a
statement that it does not feel it is correct in that area.
Mr. Greenwood responded that he felt staff could work with them. He said
it was an interesting situation because it is the City's Public Works
Department that locates the bus turnouts, and Sunline locates the bus stops.
It has happened where the bus stop has not been located at the bus turnout,
specifically on Washington Street, although generally they do follow the bus
turnout with a bus stop.
Mr. Drell noted that it was his understanding there is not currently bus service
at all on Cook Street.
Mr. Greenwood responded that there was service to the College on a very
limited schedule.
Mr. Drell added that apparently Sunline picks up almost no one. He
anticipated in this area that the level of service and location of bus stops will
change significantly as it develops and as the demand develops. It will
probably not be known entirely where the appropriate bus stops are until that
happens and we see the final design of the University on the other side and
the final design of the rest of the master plan that is going to occur to the
south. In the interim, it was best to wait and see what makes the most sense
and once there actualfy is a route designed to know which side of the street,
where it's going, etc., before a lot of permanent street improvements are
made.
Mr. Smith noted that the City Attorney's office was working on an amended
development agreement which will incorporate most of the findings contained
in this resolution. That was still coming, but it would be presented to the
Council as part of the recommended action.
Mr. Drell stated that one of the unresolved issues was reconciling the parking
supply relative to the medical offices, and the applicant had agreed to reduce
the medical office entitlement down to meet the parking supply, and it was
now in compliance. Staff and the applicant believed there wi41 be joint use
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4. 2003
efficiencies that will occur once the project is completed between the office
use and the retail use based on their differing peak demands.
Mr. Smith said that meant Condition #11 would be amended, which had
provided for the 30,000 square feet of inedical to verbiage that staff will work
on relative to what Mr. Drell outlined.
Chairperson Campbell asked Mr. Smith to review again what Phase I will
entail.
Mr. Smith stated that basically it was the project at the corner of Cook and
Gerald Ford.
Mr. Evans indicated that Phase I was about 50,000 square feet of
office and about 45,000 square feet of retail. Phases !! and III they
had not been able to predict when they may happen. Those phases
matched the parcels and were tentative parcel maps. They tried to
keep the whole thing in concert. He said a question was asked by
Commissioner Tschopp at the last meeting what happens if the hotel
phase happens before Phase I! or IIl, and he said that would trigger
the completion of any and all the Spine Road and Berger and
Technology. He said they had to be cognizant that there may be a
demand for it to go ahead further earlier, which the adjacent land
owner may require. He said this was what they thought was the best
way to reflect on what Phase I would look like and then let Phase II
trigger the rest.
Commissioner Tschopp asked whether ARC had given approval yet to this
project. Mr. Smith responded that portions had been approved, the retail
portion, but not the hotel. Commissioner Tschopp asked about the left turn
from Cook Street into the center, asking whether it would hurt or change any
traffic patterns on Cook Street.
Mr. Greenwood responded that this was one of the items that had a lot of
discussion, and he felt they had an acceptable situation presented here.
Upon question by Commissioner Tschopp as to how many cars would stack
up on Cook Street to make the left turn, Mr. Greenwood responded that he
did not have the dimension for the driveway into the project, but he thought
it was about 200 feet long, and this would accommodate about eight cars.
Mr. Drell said that once the center is built out and people understand how it
works, you will see people entering from the back, turning onto Berger, and
driving along the Spine Road as opposed to winding your way down Main
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4, 2003
Street with your car, which will not be easy because it is being shared with
pedestrians. The easiest way to get to the parking field is to go the Spine
Road and then straight down the aisle that takes you into the main parking
field. The advantage of this project was that it has six driveways, which is
unusual. As an example, Desert Crossing effectively has only two
driveways, and the mall effectively has three or four. With so many ways to
get into this project, the idea was that people will ultimately disperse their
access so that one of them should not get overloaded.
Commissioner Lopez expressed concern with the eight-car stack-up on Cook
Street in Phase I and said he could foresee that as being a problem because
it could back up right into the intersection of Berger, although Berger will not
be an intersection until Phase II.
Mr. Greenwood stated that the left turn off Cook will be the only access just
during Phase I. Assuming this project moves along reasonably quickly, the
traffic volumes on Cook Street were currently relatively low, so capacity is
very good. He said he could not imagine we would ever see this turn lane
stacked up with eight cars within the next four or five years. Within that time
it was anticipated that Spine Road would be built, either by Phase II of this
project or by some other surrounding project. He said he felt it would be a
comfortable situation there, assuming the timing worked out.
Mr. Drell said we might want to have some contingency relative to Berger.
Mr. Evans stated in devising this plan, they looked at the question that
was brought up, and their feeling has been that the right turn, the
queuing lane that was agreed to with Public Works, was more than
adequate to deal with the Phase I traffic for three reasons. The traffic
on Cook Street during that period of time was not at the anticipated
five-year level, much less the 20-year level, which was what the
design was for. Number two, the traffic that is queuing up from
Gerald Ford will have an alternate ingress off of Gerald Ford, so that
traffic will be picked up by the Gerald Ford entrance with a right turn
in. Basically, the accommodation for that right turn in and that
queuing that was referred to, there is traffic generated from I-10 as
opposed to traffic generated from the regional roadway system.
Commissioner Lopez stated that he was referring to the left-hand turn in,
going north on Cook Street, into Phase I.
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4, 2003
Mr. Evans said going northbound on Cook Street was the reason they
feit they were providing adequately because the queuing and stacking
in there is not going to be a huge factor.
Commissioner Lopez said he hoped this would be so successful and would
be such a destination. He said the developer was going to go through the
first phases of success where everyone wants to come and see what this is,
and he was concerned that because of that, in the early stages, the access
off Cook Street and the left turn should be given some consideration as to
how many cars can stack up on there. If this is a successful place, it's
Saturday afternoon, and it's prime season in the Valley, there will be more
than eight cars stacked up. Although Cook Street can handle the traffic,
we're talking about a left hand tum, and he felt consideration should be given
to that.
Mr. Drell asked whether it would make sense to have a contingency that if
that problem does, in fact, occur, it would trigger at least development of
Berger up to that driveway so you at least get access off of Berger.
Mr. Greenwood responded that this would be fine.
Mr. Drell stated that it could be determined by the City Engineer if significant
traffic congestion is occurring. He added that if that is actually occurring,
then Phase I I is not long to follow. He said it was very likely that Berger and
the Spine Road might get built with Phase I in conjunction with the
development of the infrastructure for the balance of the master plan.
Commission Tschopp asked where exactly the median was that was
discussed by staff for decrease.
Mr. Dretl responded that it was north of Berger, and it was one of the
restricted right turn in, left turn out, median control structures. It would allow
northbound to go left turn in but did not allow northbound left turns to exit.
It was adjacent to the only access off of Cook Street, and it was
approximately mid-way between Berger and Gerald Ford.
Mr. Greenwood said he also wanted to make sure the median on Berger on
the College side does not get lost in this discussion. He wanted to make
sure the Commission understood the change to median island was to reduce
it from the current 29 feet in width. In order to make the streets line up with
the land plan, that median nose will have to be reduced down to five feet
wide for a length of 100 feet. It goes from being a major entry statement at
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4, 2003
the College to being just a ribbon of concrete. He said there was a push and
pull between those land uses on the south edge of the project and this
median on the College side. It seemed strange to tie those together, but that
was what was happening.
Mr. Drell stated that Berger was a private street, and the ability to do that was
contingent upon agreement by the University, and he did not believe this
latest design had been run by them.
Chairperson asked Mr. Greenwood what he would recommend on the other
side of Berger and said the City wanted to have a grand entrance to the
University.
Mr. Greenwood agreed and said what was being presented was the five-foot
nose. He asked the Commission what it wanted. He asked if it was
acceptable to go across the street to this entry statement and make a major
change there or attempt to do that in order to make these roads line up, or
if an attempt should be made to do that in some other way.
Mr. Drell said the plan showed two through lanes on Berger, and he asked
why that was the case.
Mr. Greenwood responded that what was really wanted there was two left-
turn lanes and one through lane out of the College, with space reserved in
case there is a heavy traffic flow, and a second west-bound through lane
could be added.
Mr. Drell said we do not want to encourage a heavy flow across Berger
because that is entering a residential neighborhood, and he did not think
there should be any contingency or encouragement of a heavy flow into that
residential neighborhood. He said the Spine Road was just a two-lane road
with a bike lane, and he did not know why we would ever want to have a cut-
through situation to a residential collector.
Mr. Greenwood stated that was why we want to do it as one lane now. If the
volume develops to where it is causing a traffic problem, we would have the
ability to go to a second lane.
Mr. Drell asked if having just one through lane would change in any way the
geometry of that median. He said he felt it was not only unnecessary but
undesirable to have two through lanes, and traffic should be discouraged
from going there at all costs rather than accommodating it.
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4. 2003
Mr. Greenwood responded that a lot of variations of this intersection had
been seen, and there may be other ways to do this.
Mr. Drell asked if the extra footage by having just one through lane could be
added back to the median. He said the primary destination for people
leaving the University is either going north or south, and it should not be
going through the residential neighborhood. Traffic through the
neighborhood should be limited to people whose destination is that
neighborhood, and that should be handled by one lane. The purpose of the
Spine Road was to service the residential area, not to relieve congestion at
that intersection.
Mr. Greenwood responded that his concem was that Spine Road has an as
yet undetermined amount of residential development scheduled, and without
a traffic study, we don't know what that volume will be. He said his gut
feeling was that one lane was ultimately tolerable and probably at a pretty
good level of service. The difficulty was in the geometry, making the right
lanes line up with the right lanes across the street, and it was more an issue
of geometry than traffic volume.
Commissioner Tschopp asked if there were any concerns that if Spine Road
becomes a priority road, traffic trying to make turns would back up and
create more problems on Spine Road. He said he felt that would impact
what happens at the corner of Cook and Berger.
Mr. Greenwood said staff anticipated that the intersection of Spine and
Berger would have some kind of control, probably a stop sign. Technology
and Spine would probably be stop controlled all the way around, and at those
stop controlled intersections, it may be necessary to widen it out and provide
a second through fane and a left turn pocket or right turn lane, depending on
what the movements are. He said a preliminary traffic study had been
prepared by one of the developers in this area, and it showed the volume on
Spine Road at about 5,000 vehicles per day, based on very rough
projections. Even if they are off by 50°/o and it is 10,000 per day, that can be
accommodated by a two-lane road. He said the 5,000 per day assumed no
cut-through traffic, and it was just the volumes generated within this section
of land. Assuming there would be some cut-through traffic, the volume could
be higher. He said in staff's discussions with the developer, it was agreed
at a staff level to optimize Gerald Ford and Cook and make them really nice
arterial streets with excellent capacity and scale Spine Road more to the
local collector it is intended to be, so it should be able to handle the traffic we
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4, 2003
want to be on that road. Gerald Ford and Cook Street will be abie to handle
the traffic we want on those roads.
Mr. Drell added that there wouid be additional right-turn lanes at the
intersections to handle the potential stacking that would occur at those
locations.
Commissioner Tschopp stated he felt this will be a successful project, and
at build out there will be many people coming north on Cook. Given that the
main entrance is at the Berger intersection, traffic will enter the project on
Berger. The first driveway to the right takes you down the main street area,
which is not really conducive to traffic or to get to the center parking aisle, so
they will probably then proceed on to Berger and use Spine Road to come
in through the back. That will add a tremendous amount of traffic, and he
asked if that was adequate planning to meet those needs.
Mr. Drell said the peak traffic coming in and out of the residential area will be
in the early morning and late afternoon, while peak traffic coming in and out
of the center will be more midday. It is important to balance all the various
considerations, and staff felt this was the appropriate solution. There will be
a lot of traffic coming from all directions to this project, and the idea was to
have enough driveways throughout the project so that dispersion of that
traffic should avaid any impact in any one location.
Commissioner Tschopp felt the entryway into the University was a good
statement that needs to be made and kept as it is. Given that we do not
have an existing Berger Drive yet, is there any way to work with the west side
of Berger Drive as opposed to serving the existing Berger Drive.
Mr. Greenwood responded that this can be done. A side effect was that it
would really affect the land plan for this development.
Commissioner Tschopp asked whether Berger Drive was laid out right now
or if constraints were being imposed because there are two separate owners
on opposite sides of the street.
Mr. Drell responded that on the west side, there was technically one owner
right now. He said fhere was no land plan on the south. If whatever we do
involves or requires any modification of the College side, a discussion will
have to be had with them to figure out how that will be accomplished and
whether they agree to it. He said the idea was whether there is room to
expand the curb at the College to the south a bit to preserve that median.
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4, 2003
Mr. Greenwood said the difficulty was that it was the west-bound through
lane that needed to be lined up. The problem was that Berger Drive on the
east side was a very unusual design with a 29-foot median island, and it was
hard to match up to that without duplicating that width exactly.
Chairperson Campbell noted that the public hearing was open, and she asked that
applicant to address the Commission.
MR. R(CK EVANS, 57745 Interlachen, La Quinta, said he felt most of the
open issues had been discussed, and Mr. Smith had brought to the
Commission's attention the letter he had submitted today which addressed
certain adjustments in the resolution which subsequently his engineer had
further conversation with Mr. Greenwood. He feit the had probably resolved
all of the open issues from his standpoint, with the adjustments being made
to the bus stops and the suggestions and recommendations from that angle,
the changes on Gerald Ford and Cook Street, the new hundred-foot radius
at the intersection of Gerald Ford and Cook, and to varying degrees a lot of
the adjustments made in this project over the last coupte of months. He
noted that at their last meeting, Berger was not on center on the east side of
Cook Streei. They went back last week and redesigned that end of the
project to squeeze as much as they could out of it to line it up. He said they
had a four-foot dimension they needed to make up in order to align with the
east side, the University side, of Berger. That process lost them ten hotel
rooms and 1,000 square feet of space in those two retail buildings in order
to preserve the parking. They also created an additional buffer of another
ten parking spaces. They wanted to go in a little over-parked from Code
because things happen. A lot of changes and adjustments had been made,
they worked well with staff, and they appreciated all of their input. He said
Berger had been a moving target since they began this six months ago.
From their standpoint, they had made it as wide as they possibly could
without having a detrimental effect on the project. He offered to answer any
questions.
Chairperson Campbell said she would be interested in knawing exactly
where the drive-thru restaurants would be.
Mr. Evans responded that three were included on the plan. There were two
on Cook Street, one on the south side of the entry, one on the north side of
the entry, and one on Gerald Ford.
Chairperson Campbell asked what kind of buffer there was going to be
between Cook and the restaurants.
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4. 2003
Mr. Evans responded that one of the buffers added on Cook Street was on
Pad #3, which had a buffer from the driveway with fandscaping and
enhanced paving. He said when they implement their landscaping program,
they fe(t they would need to analyze even further to ensure that there is the
right landscaping effect. Most importantly, there is no window on that side,
it is the exit, and there will not be stacking standing there all the time. There
will just be exiting cars from the drive-thru entrance. On the other side, they
reversed it so that the drive-thru is on the right-hand side of Pad #4 so that
when people pick up their product, that area is buffered from a lot of the view
of the street.
Mr. Drell said in the northern one, the one on the north side of the Cook
Street entrance, the drive-thru lane does not go around the building, and it
is just a circulation aisle in the parking lot. It leaves the building both
engaging front and back both on the main street and on Cook Street. W here
we have buiiding engaging those streets, there is no buffer necessary at all.
Commissioner Tschopp noted that traffic going into Pads 3 and 4, using
drive-ups, then empty back out onto Main Street. He asked if that would
impair pedestrian traffic or impact that in any way.
Mr. Evans said no and added that they had designed it to be finro cars more
than what the McDonald's scheme is for acceptable stacking, and he
believed that number was eight. He said that was the most difficult case in
their experience.
Commissioner Tschopp stated that when the cars exit, they will exiting out
onto the main street. Trying to increase and promote pedestrian traffic, he
asked if the applicant had a concern that that traffic exiting fihe drive-ins are
going to impact the pedestrian or come in conflict with that.
Mr. Evans responded that they did not anticipate that to be an issue. He said
while there would be exiting there, they felt it queues very nicely with the
surface level of the restaurant, whichever one it happens to be, and the
queuing will be, just by design of a fast food restaurant, metered in a way
that allows the traffic to not stack up on the parking lot and allows adequate
separation. Also, that is a two or three mile an hour situation there, it is not
a speed situation.
Upon question by Commissioner Finerty, Mr. Evans responded that the plan
had always been to have some kind of enhanced paving in the plaza. She
asked if any thought had been given to locating the main restaurants at the
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4, 2003
entrances instead of focusing on the entrances both on Cook and Gerald
Ford with fast food drive-thru's. Mr. Evans responded that they had them in
several places, although they opted to have them this way because
experience had shown that the restaurant people really did not have a big
need for the main entrance locations. He said down at restaurant Pads 1
and 2, they have a very good proximity to the entrance off of Berger, and
they were designed to service that end of the project as well as the hotel and
some of the local traffic. He said they saw even more restaurants at the
main plaza corner.
Commissioner Finerty asked if that meant Pads 1 and 2 were sit-down
restaurants, and Mr. Evans agreed. He said he saw one as being a three
meals a day restaurant (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), which would be
something (ike Mimi's or Coco's. He saw the one next to it as being
somewhat more limited in service, probably lunch and dinner, perhaps
something like PF Chang's or Macaroni Grille. He said they envisioned the
locations at both sides of the plaza at the corner of Gerald Ford and Cook to
be sit-down restaurants, probably two meal a day restaurants.
Commissioner Finerty said in her mind the comer of Cook and Gerald Ford
was the main entrance, and there would be a sit-down restaurant on each
side. Mr. Evans agreed. She said that meant there would be four sit-down
restaurants and three fast food restaurants with drive-thru's.
Mr. Evans agreed this is what would be at those particular locations,
although he did not necessarily feel it was limited to that. He said that was
what they saw at this point. He said Retail #1 and #2 were designed as
multiple-tenant buildings, and they saw the lineup of inerchants in these two
buildings as going from three to four thousand square foot restaurant down
to a one thousand square foot salon. He said they had actually intended and
designed the two low pavilion buildings to be restaurants, and they expected
them to be able to operate with a patio that is not only out in the plaza but
also their own patio. They had operable doors, and they expected those
doors to be opened and closed in inclement weather. The concept was that
on a day that is beautiful, they will be able to open those doors to allow
diners to sit outside. On a day where it is windy, rainy, or too cold, those
diners will still be able to have a nice dining experience.
Commissioner Finerty noted that a few meetings back discussion had been
held about the parking plan and the medical use, and the applicant said he
was not going to let all the medical use get in the way of the project. She
noted that the medical area had been reduced so that the applicant will be
in compliance with the parking. She asked if the applicant could live with
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Pads 3 and 4 not being drive-thru's and not having that exception that would
require expanding the freeway overlay zone to allow drive-thru's.
Mr. Evans responded that this would be a very difficult thing for them. The
financial model for this project realiy requires it. Also, the leasability of any
more retail on this intersection in the foreseeable future was rather difficult
to predict. A lot of it depends on the growth in the neighborhood, and they
had tried to adapt themselves to the idea that not everything that is there
today will be the same thing that is going to be there tomorrow. A plan was
shown last time that included the expansion. They saw a building that
replaces a parking lot, and that becomes below grade parking. They also
saw these fast food pads, 15 to 20 years from now, as going away and
becoming more intense retail uses. Part of that was not only an economic
hardship on the project today, but in the future it would eliminate perhaps the
ability for them to grow the project in the market rate condition that it needs
to be able to grow in in the future when they anticipated the University to be
more and the neighborhoods to be bigger.
Commissioner Finerty said the applicant talked about one of the nice things
about the project being the fact that one can walk everywhere, and the
purpose of Main Street was to have both the cars and pedestrian-friendly
use. She felt that was inconsistent with wanting three drive-thru's.
Mr. Evans appreciated what she said but said we also have to recognize the
market condition, that this is a freeway-oriented site, becoming less so in the
next two to six years. He said he felt as the developer that he had to be very
cognizant of market conditions that make a project financially viable. They
also had to have a good merchandising mix for the project, and they saw that
as a very important aspect. While fast food was a very important aspect
today, it may not be as important in 15 years.
Commissioner Finerty noted that in Pa�m Desert, there are really no drive-
thru's, and most fast food restaurants are walk-in. She said they are rather
successful and that there is probably every fast food restaurant known to
man in the City except for In-n-Out.
Mr. Evans said he would not have recommended doing this kind of a project
with this idea on Highway 111; however, this is I-10, and they were a
freeway-oriented project to a certain degree. This project will have three
customers: those generated by I-10, those generated by the neighborhoods,
and those generated by the office workers. Being able to accommodate
people in a multi-faceted way was an important aspect to a project like this.
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Not being able to accommodate them for a quick meal was a big loss for a
project like this.
Chairperson Campbell said with regard to the drive-thru, she really did not
understand why it was so important to have drive-thru's. She said it was
okay to have fast food, but she did not know why a drive-thru was needed.
She felt it took the same amount of time to park and go in to get the food as
it did to drive through. She said when she travels, she can go to a fast food
restaurant, but she would rather go in so she can use the restroom.
Mr. Evans agreed with Chairperson Campbell and said he would rather go
in himself, but he felt they were in the minority. A good example was
Starbuck's, which is starting to create drive-thru facilities. He said they had
just met with the Starbuck's people last week on this and another project,
and the answer was that 30% of the customers are now using the drive-thru
because they are in a hurry and they want something quick and they believe
that is the quick way. He said most people think of drive-thru restaurants as
being like McDonald's and Burger King. The fast food business is changing,
and as you read the paper you see how they are working hard to change.
McDonald's is starting to create better meals than they've ever created
before, so they cannot be put in the genre of lousy food like we did even two
years ago. They have to be put in the genre of they expect that they will do
a better job and be a better product. But there is that customer who wants
to swing in and swing out and get the job done and go on to their next spot.
He said they had looked at this project to try to bfend a lot of uses. The
office use is an important blend for them. This is not a Wal-Mart center or
an Alberton's center. He said they looked for traffic generators when they
put together the merchandising scheme. The office product is, in fact, a
traffic generator. The hotel product was, in fact, a traffic generator. The
residential was also a traffic generator, as was the highway customer that is
quick on and quick off of the highway, and that was a very important aspect
of the project because there will a lot of people getting on and off that
freeway to go to the gas stations. Medical office was high on their list, but
it was not so high that it should jeopardize the project. He said they had
come in with a recommendation with the encouragement of Mr. Drell and the
staff to say they currently are approximately 37 cars over-parked according
to Code. That was not enough to provide the required parking for the
medical office, but it was enough to provide the required parking for about
20,000 square feet of the 30,000 requested. On the medical office, if the
project quantity of inedical office rises and falls on available excess parking,
that is a fair way to deal with the issue of the six to one parking ratio.
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4, 2003
Chairperson Campbeil said she wanted to make sure the hotel would be built
and not have the project stop with Phase 1 without the other phases being
built.
Mr. Evans said he felt Phase 1 was a done deal for them as long as the
Commission is willing to accept it on its merits. The hotel phase was not a
current phase, and they did not have a transaction with a hotel. They had
activity on Phase 1 that is different than the hotel. He said they did not plan
for the hotel to be built and have nothing else built. They did not see it as the
first thing that happens on the project. He said he felt the phasing plan
shown was indicative of that. The one thing they could not predict was
whether the hotel phase would be built before Phase 2 or 3 with the office
and/or the rest of the retail. It was possible that may happen and trigger
Phase 2 before the rest of the office and the resf of the retaif. Given thai and
market conditions and the housing being planned around them, he did not
think there was going to be any delay on the whole thing. He said they were
being very cautious, conservative, and fair. They also conceded the fact that
right now the right thing for the corner is the project that is Phase 1. As time
goes on and more people are in the neighborhood, Phase 2 and Phase 3 will
become attractive as the market conditions improve.
Chairperson Campbell said she did not want to see just Phase 1 be built and
the rest be left barren land, with somebody else needing to come along and
take up where this applicant left off. She said she hoped this wou(d not
happen.
Mr. Drell added that the problem was that right now it is in the middle of
nowhere. He said what you don't want is for a project to be over built initially
beyond what the markets can support, and then the whole thing collapses.
By definition, the project will have to grow and evolve as the neighborhood
grows and evolves around it. The greatest appeal of the project is the Main
Street. Today it is a freeway-oriented project because that is where the
traffic is generated. The Main Street becomes attractive when residents and
the University start growing up around it. To a certain degree, what happens
at Desert Willow is going to be a determinant. If we get those hotels built in
Desert Willow, suddenly there is a greater mass of customers in the
neighborhood.
Upon question by Chairperson Campbell, Mr. Drell responded that the
Commission is not voting on Phase I, it is voting on the master plan for the
whole project. Probably the only indeterminate aspect of the project right
now is the hotel. Mr. Evans is not a hotel developer. He has provided a pad
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4, 2003
for the hotel, but that is something that would have to come back to the
Commission. Or if there was any significant change in any of the phases as
they were to be built, those would also come back to the Commission. The
Commission was voting on the whole project. We are in an optimistic
business and always assume that the plans we approve will get built,
although there is never a guarantee that anything gets built. He believed this
was the right project for this location given its unique variety of market
demand. It was very likely that as Phase 2 and Phase 3 evolve, they will be
different than the Commission was seeing now, and in those cases, they
would come back to the Commission.
MR. MIKE MARIX, 128 Vista Monte, Palm Desert, said they owned the
balance of the property here. He supported Mr. Evans' program. He had
once concern and said he had not seen the site plan for some months. This
was the first update he had see, although that was his own fault. When the
project was first discussed, the hotel was going to be in the middle of it.
Discussion was held relative to view corridors and heights. The hotel had
now been moved, and he had some concern about a 35-foot building
adjacent to residential directly west of it. He said they had not yet
established the elevation directly of those residential pads to the west, but
he would not like to see the view be the third floor of the hotel. He asked the
Commission to consider this in the course of approving grading plans and
the like.
Mr. Drell said he believed in the master plan submitted, directly west was the
park and the public facilities. One of the reasons the park was there was a
significant need to take up grade for the shopping center since it has to be
relatively flat. He said the grading plan showed a significant grade, and he
thought the residential pads could be 20 or 30 feet above the grade of this
project. An interesting architectural problem was how to deal with rooftop
equipment of all the buildings, given the fact that the residential lots will be
considerably higher. How that rooftop equipment is screened is a different
problem than we are normally used to where we're looking at eye level.
Mr. Marix added that he does support this project and felt it would be
complementary to what they are going to do. So far they have had good
talks and sensitivity about adjoining uses.
MS. KIM HOUSKEN, 73-237 Somera, said she was not well-versed in this
project, although she had read up on it a bit. She was intrigued by the idea
of a Main Street and felt it was a great idea. She felt a pedestrian friendly
area was a wonderful idea, especially with family restaurants. She concurred
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PQLM DESERT PLANNtNG COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4, 2003
with Chairperson Campbell and Commissioner Finerty that it seems a
contradiction to have fast food restaurants where you're encouraging people
to stroll. Mr. Evans himself said this was not a speed situation turning onto
Main Street, but "fast" meant "speed" and people wanted to get in and get
out. The location was a major entry into the City, and she questioned
whether this was something we want to have coming into Palm Desert. In
her mind, when she heard the term fast food, she started to think about strip
malls and nail joints, and it goes downhill really quick. In terms of this major
entrance to the City, she felt it should be carefully thought out as to what will
be put there. She added that there stiil seemed to be a lot of questions,
including about what kind of restaurants, and she thought of Denny's when
hearing about a three meals a day restaurant. She did not think this was the
kind of restaurant that should be out there. With regard to the hotel, she was
not sure what type there would be — would it be like a Motel 6? She added
that there were a lot of unanswered questions, and with the General Plan still
be amended, it would seem prudent to continue this case until we see what
direction the City Council will take with the General Plan.
Chairperson Campbell declared the public hearing closed.
Commissioner Finerty agreed with the last speaker that this is an intriguing
project, and it was an interesting concept with the Main Street. As we have
gone through the process, this was something she would like to see.
Unfortunately, she could not support it at this point for a number of reasons.
She had never been particularly thrilled with the architecture, and she
understood that the applicant had changed architects. This project, because
of all the little stores packed together, was the opposite of the big box
concept, but the architecture to her reminded her of a bunch of little boxes.
She said she knew there were no landscaping plans yet, and we really do not
know what the hotel will look iike, and Architectural Review Commission was
still looking at it. With regard to the height issues for the hotel and retail and
requesting exceptions for a 34-foot height, she was not seeing where the
benefit of anything architectural was helping with the extra height, because
it still looked like a bunch of little boxes to her. She was concerned about the
entire surface being dg, and she was not convinced that would hold up and
work. She was appreciative of the fact that the applicant had come into
compliance with the parking. Her main objection was the gateway to the
City, and this would not be her idea of a gateway as the main entrance to
Palm Desert: a) because of architecture; b) because of the fast food. She
was not a fan of fast food restaurants and had never supported fast food
drive-thru restaurants with all the applications that had come before the
Commission, and she could not do so now. She understood with the
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PAlM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4, 2003
Wonder Palms agreement Pad 5 was already allowed for the drive-thru;
however, Pads 3 and 4 do require an exception that she could not support.
She said it was hard for her to live with all the fast food restaurants, and
making them drive-thru's on top of that was an intolerable situation. Palm
Desert has done well without drive-thru's, and she thought that was an image
she would like to see continue. Additional(y, the (ocations of the fast food
restaurants, Pads 3, 4, and 5, right at the entrance, again that would not be
what she would want to see when you enter. That was not her idea of a
gateway to Palm Desert, which has that resort atmosphere so that when you
enter somewhere you're not going to see this fast food on both sides as you
enter off of Cook. If changes could be made to accommodate her concerns,
she felt it eventually could be a nice project, but for right now, she would not
be able to support it.
Commissioner Tschopp said this project was on a very busy intersection
adjacent to an Interstate, and across the street from a university that will
grow to some significance over time. He said he felt it would be a mistake
on the part of the Commission to tie the developer's hands and tell him what
types of restaurants and businesses to put inside. He felt the market would
require fast food restaurants. He said he was not enamored with the location
of them, but in looking at the plan he was not sure where else they would go.
The market does require fast foods, and many years back in college, he
remembers they ate fast food. He felt this was convenient to the College
and to the Interstate, and he did not have a problem with that. He thought
the entryway was actualiy beautiful. Standing in the intersection looking up
fihrough the project, he felt it was a good look for that area, and he felt the
developer had done a good job given the environmental constraints that are
out there, including the wind. With regard to the architecture, he felt it could
work out there. Overall, he felt the plan was compatible and was consistent
with the current projects out there and with the proposed development. He
felt it would be a good fit and hoped it would work the way it has been
envisioned with the Main Street walkway, etc. If the Commission were to
approve it, he would like to have the conditions to mitigate any problems that
occur on Cook Street with the left-hand turn lane, why we only have Phase
1 included, and he would also like to make sure we maintain the median to
the College's satisfaction across the street. He felt an "entry into the Coliege
as well as this project needed to be a statement and should be maintained.
Commissioner Lopez said he also saw this a little differently from the
standpoint of the overall project. The medical office and the lines for parking
and the reduction and (imitations of that, it was his understanding we would
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4. 2003
have to reword Item #11, and he asked if that was something that needed
to be done this evening or if it was something staff would work on.
Planning Manager Steve Smith said he had some language that could be
used.
Commissioner Lopez said he would look to staff to make that appropriate
change. The development agreement Item #12 would need to be submitted
to the City Council for approval prior to anything else being moved forward
on this. The concerns regarding the hotel developer were concerns he also
had, but he also knew that we are in an environment right now where hotels
are not developing. With few exceptions in our community right now, hotels
are doing terribly, and this destination resort usually lags one to two years
behind what happens normally in the normal hotel environment. It takes a
little bit longer for the recessions to hit here, and it also takes a little bit longer
for them to move out. He did not know what would go there, but he would
rely on Architectural Review to make sure the project looks great.
Experience told him that there is a chance we will be sitting there with that
property the way we're looking right now at Desert Willow. It has been there
forever, and no one has jumped on it even for one dollar, so it could be a
challenge for the future. He believed the concept was correct and the
location was good. The usage of restaurants across the street to help
support the people who would be staying in that location was fine. Knowing
where the project will be located, he said there was a need and it made
sense for fast food drive-thru in Phase 1. He would really recommend that
in the future phases we carefully take a look at Pad 3 and see if that makes
sense. That particular pad has the opportunity to have a negative effect on
the entire project as it pertains going down Cook Street. Pads 5 and 4 he felt
were pretty well hidden. Overall, he felt it looked fine architecturally. With
the proper changes on some of the conditions of approval, he felt good about
it.
Chairperson Campbell said she liked the project very much and felt it was a
great entrance to the City. Her only comment would be in regard to the fast
food restaurants. She did not mind Pad 5 because it did not seem that it
would have more through traffic like Cook Street has, but she had a problem
with Pad 4 being a drive-thru restaurant. She agreed with Commissioner
Lopez on Pad 3 and did not feel it should have a drive-thru restaurant. She
really did not like the drive-thru on the corner of Dinah Shore and Monterey
and felt it would look terrible. As far as everything else was concerned with
the parking and the medical buildings, she did not have any problems with
that.
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PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4. 2003
Mr. Drell said what he heard was that there were three votes in favor of fast
food on Gerald Ford and maybe the fast food on the north side of the
entrance but not on the south side of the entrance. He asked if there was a
good elevation of either of those Cook Street fast foods, and he felt perhaps
if the Commissioners saw a very specific view of what it might look like form
Cook Street, it might change their minds. The fast food on the north side of
the entrance should look no different than any other store because the drive-
thru aisle is not differentiated. He said the one on the north side of the
entrance was not circled by the aisle and was just a building next to a parking
lot and an aisle in the parking lot that people drive through, which they do all
the time in a parking lot.
Commissioner Tschopp asked if when the Commission approves a pad for
a restaurant, they are saying it could be a drive-thru.
Commissioner Finerty stated that drive-thru's are not allowed in the City.
Mr. Drell responded that this was not true. The City has a specific zone
which specifically allows it at major intersections next to the Interchange.
Commissioner Tschopp said it was his understanding when the Commission
approves a restaurant pad, it is not stating that it has to be something like a
Ruth's Chris and it could be a Taco Bell 2.
Mr. Drell responded that we do not have the ability to approve tenants. Land
uses are approved as well as physical development.
Commissioner Tschopp said if the problem with Pad 3 is with the drive-thru,
hopefully the architecture could handle that or perhaps see if the
Commission wants to look at eliminating the drive-thru on that pad, leaving
it as a restaurant pad and stating that it wants the architecture to be
compatible with the rest of the center.
Mr. Drell responded that he was sure it would be. The issue was what level
of approval does the Commission want to confer. The Commission can
confer any level it wants. It can require that the drive-thru's, which the
Commission has not yet seen elevations of, be brought before the
Commission. The problem Mr. Evans has is that to finance the project and
start the project, he has to know he has certain tenants of some sort, and
that is based on what he expects to get from certain drive-thru restaurants.
He asked how the developer could ease the Commission's mind as to the
final appearance of those at this stage.
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PALM DESERT PlANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4, 2UO3
Mr. Evans said they had endeavored to put together a balanced project, not
slanted in one direction or the other. Their experience said that the
neighborhood that is going to be around this project would fully utilize all the
uses that have been planned. As mentioned by Mr. Drell at the last meeting,
when they star�ed working on this corner, they were working solely within the
Wonder Palms development agreement, which really was 11 acres of this
project currently. They were encouraged by staff to abandon the idea of a
gasoline station and four fast food pads on the six acres, and they
encouraged them to look at something that had a lot more vision attached
to it. They endeavored to puil together a project that had balance, that met
conditions, that was unusual. He said this was an unusual and upcoming
area, a growing area. They endeavored to create balance of the project, not
only visual balance but also merchandising balance. There were a lot of
different customers out there. They were not like himself and Chairperson
Campbe(f where they go to a fast food restaurant not for the drive-in but for
the food and for the relaxation and a spot to relax for a bit before getting
back on the road. He said there are people who go to fast food restaurants
because that's where they like to go, while there were people who preferred
to go to a sit down restaurant. There were people who do all different kinds
of things. This is a big project in a big corner. They felt the fast food in this
case offers great balance. He said what he would be willing to do, if it was
of any interest at all, was to have Phase 1 approved and deal with the fast
food pad on the Phase 2 portion of the site as a future question that would
have to come back for approval rather than taking it off the site plan.
Perhaps the market condition would change for the developer in that time
period and make more sense to do that. He said his experience showed that
across the street from a brand new university, across the street from brand
new middle income, young families, near a freeway, across from the
Hampton Inn, down from the Courtyard, down from the Residence Inn, there
was a big demand for this kind of product. He felt that while the Commission
was correct in saying it is not in many other places in the center of the City
of Palm Desert, they recognized that, and it was not a debate nor reason for
them to justify anything. They were looking solely at market conditions and
saying that from a market condition standpoint, financing of this project
standpoint, it is an economic hardship on them to knock those fast food pads
out.
Commissioner Finerty said it was not the fast food pads, it was the fast food
drive-thru's on Pads 3 and 4.
Mr. Evans said there were not that many restaurants in the market. If those
were made into sit down restaurants, their experience was that those
22
MINUTES
PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION
NOVEMBER 4. 2003
locations they want on the plaza, where they want this really nice, easy
dining, comfortable restaurant on the plaza, were not going to be there.
Commissioner Finerty
have their Burger King
feature.
said if the drive-thru were removed, they could still
or whatever, it just would not include the drive-thru
Mr. Drell said part of the reason the freeway overlay zone was created which
allowed drive-thru restaurants was to provide the property owners in Palm
Desert the same ability to attract restaurants and commercial as the property
owners on the other side of the freeway in the County. Given a choice of
locating their In-n-Out Burger on the north side of the freeway or the south
side of the freeway, they're going to go on the north side if it means giving
up the drive-thru on the south side. The other issue he felt was important
was that what we're suggesting Mr. Evans do in terms of design of this sort
of projecfi was unconventional. This was not a project that lenders are used
to seeing. It doesn't have the big anchor. It doesn't have an Albertson's,
Wal-Mart, Target. This is an unconventional project that a lender will have
to be creative to finance. What they will be looking for, in the absence of a
Wal-Mart or Target or Albertson's, is what they call "credit tenants". Who are
the sort of tenants that we know will be successful? If they are not as
successful as Mr. Evans, what sort of tenants are we sure will be successful
that will at least additionally carry the project. That is why there are so many
projects with gas stations on the corner. When lenders see the gas station,
they say well the money he might not make or the time it takes to develop
success for the rest of the project, he will be able to be carried along, in
essence, by the gas station. That is why almost every project you see has
a gas station or a bank or a big box. The things we find most attractive about
this project are the things that scare most lenders. They want to see what
is famiiiar, what they know will be successful. What they know will be
successful is a gas station or fast food. They know that can carry the project,
especially in the beginning, and that will induce them to lend money on those
aspects of the project for which they are more uncomfortable, which are
those aspects we find most intriguing, most exciting. Unfortunately, in the
financial community, you can't have one without the other. This project has
pretty much rejected most of those things, the big box, the gas station, the
drug store, the supermarket. It will need something of known financial value
that the lender can hang his hat on, and what is left is the fast food
restaurants. Over time, he felt those parking lots that support the drive-thru
can disappear, mainly because their value as frontage an Cook Street will be
far more important as a building. Hopefully by then this project will be a
great success.
23
MINUTES
PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4, 2003
Commissioner Tschopp said as he understood the rest of the
Commissioners, they were not opposed to restaurant pads going there.
They were opposed to the drive-thru's. To offer some type of compromise,
he asked if we could require that the drive-thru's be sufficiently screened by
vegetation, with the specifics to be left to the Architectural Review
Commission to ensure that the drive-thru's and the plantings are sufficient
to screen them.
Commissioner Finerty said when the Wonder Palms ordinance (No. 838)
was adopted back in 1997, the City Council at that time had no drive-thru's,
and the one area that they decided could have drive-thru's was this freeway
overlay zone. They set down different criteria that needed to apply. These
criteria do talk about screening with landscaping and that the menu boards
be screened and out of public view. But they also said that drive-thru
restaurants should be limited to the portion of the property north of Gerald
Ford Drive. That is where Pad 5 is covered, but Pads 3 and 4 are not, and
that is why exceptions were needed.
Mr. Drell said that there was no question that doing the project would require
an amendment to Wonder Palms. But he believed the freeway overlay zone
was applied here as well as to Monterey and Washington. He said it was a
given that the standards of Wonder Palms were being modified to fit the
geometry of this project, mainly because it was determined that while the
Wonder Palms plan showed most of the commercial frontage on Gerald
Ford, there was no disagreement that it was more appropriate to be on Cook
Street. The issue came down to design, and it could either be left up to the
Architectural Commission orthe Commission could require that it come back
here to determine whether the requirements for the architecture and
landscaping are satisfactory.
Commissioner Finerty said Mr. Evans wanted a decision at this meeting, and
the Commission does have the ability to make its decision now. Mr. Evans
could then take it to the City Council, which is where it needs to go anyway.
Mr. Drell stated that development agreements do need to go to the City
Council.
Commissioner Finerty said that rather than waiting for ARC to look at
something or to show the Commission what the drive-thru's are going to look
like, the applicant might as well get all that stuff and take it to the City
Council.
24
MINUTES
PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4. 2003
Mr. Drell said he would suspect that the Council will want to see those
pictures before they proceed as well. They will want some assurance, even
if it is a generalized standard, that this is the standard that the final project
will have to meet. They will need some visual representation of how those
drive-thru's are going to look.
Chairperson Campbell said she would feel comfartable having the fast food
on Pad 4, which is adequately screened, but no drive-thru. For Pad 5, she
would feel comfortable having a drive-thru fast food restaurant. With regard
to Pad 3, that was something that would came back with Phase 3.
Mr. Drell said that there would be no guarantees, and the applicant, if he had
a fast food tenant there, would have to come back and go through the
process.
Commissioner Finerty said that the only drive-thru then would be what
Wonder Palms calls for, and that is a drive-thru on Pad 5.
Upon question by Mr. Drell, Chairperson Campbell said she did not want a
drive-thru on Pad 4 because it is right there on the Main Street. Mr. Drell
said it would not look any different than a sit down restaurant at that location
because the building abuts the street and it is adjacent to a parking lot. The
fast food aisle is no different than an aisle in a parking lot.
Chairperson Campbell said we will have to go ahead and see how it is
adequately screened. Also, we have been talking about the University
Village, and the people in the University and in the neighborhood will be
riding bikes. She asked if bikes can go through drive-thru's.
Mr. Drell said right now there is no neighborhood, there is no University, and
there are no bicycles. There will be bicycles five to ten years from now.
Unfortunately, the project cannot wait for that in order to get financed. The
project has to respond to today's market and then be able to evolve into
tomorrow's market. If we cut it off at the knees, it will not respond to any
market.
Chairperson Campbell said if there is a drive-thru on Pad 5, you are not
impaired by all the parking that you have on both sides of the Main Street.
It seemed it would be easy in and easy out, whereas on Pad 4, it is a little
more complicated. When you are driving out, you go into all of the parking
area.
25
MINUTES
PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4, 2003
Commissioner Lopez said when you look at Pad 4, the people pull into the
driveway as they would to park their car and go into a fast food restaurant.
However, instead of parking, they pull up to a window, get their food, and pull
out. That is where he felt this was unique and where it was different. If it is
well-bermed and landscaped along Cook Street, there really isn't any
difference being a fast food restaurant or being a fast food restaurant with a
drive-thru. He said this was not a drive-thru that goes around the building
and becomes exposed as it does on Monterey Avenue. This is going to be
situation where they are adequately sheltered, and they are really in a
parking lot. They just happen to drive up to a window in that parking lot, get
their food, and leave. On Pad 5, that is really not an issue. With Pad 4, he
did not think it was a situation where you will have an unsightly view of cars
lined up as you do on Monterey. He said he felt it was important to get
Phase 1 off on the right foot. After that, everything else will fall into place.
Pad 3 in Phase 3 probably won't even be there because it wasn't in the
beginning. The early plan did not include a Pad 3 in Phase 3, it was a
parking lot area. He said perhaps part of the compromise could be to
approve Phase 1 tonight, with the other phases and the hotel to come back
to the Commission for approval.
Mr. Evans said it was difficult at this point to envision that there will be a
building there. The only thing that could be conceivably different is that they
could find a tenant that would go there that really wouldn't need or want a
drive-thru. What they were suggesting in the master plan concept, that
particular pad would have to come back to the Commission for further
approval based on their ability to justify a need. To disenfranchise all of the
phases from what they were presenting would really put an unusual burden
on them, and they could not go out and market anything without their
entitlements on this. They were phased, but they were master plan phased.
Commissioner Finerty asked if it would be advantageous if the Commission
voted on the entire project tonight as presented, and then the applicant could
take it to the City Council.
Mr. Evans responded that this was not spirit in which he came here tonight
and it was not the spirit in which he was talking.
Mr. Drell said the suggestion was that the southern pad for the fast food
would, in essence, be put on hold, and there would be no approval for that.
He said there was no debate about the office plan or about the balance. It
was already understood that in terms of the hotel, all we're talking about is
the location of a hotel. The hotel will have to come back when it is finally
26
MINUTES
PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4, 2003
designed by the hotel developer. To go a step further, it would be
acknowledged that there will be a fast food restaurant on the north side of
the entrance, but the Commission wants to see the design prior to it
proceeding to be assured it is complying with the requirements of the
Wonder Palms plan.
Commissioner Tschopp agreed with Commissioner Lopez about Pad 4 and
how that drive-thru is just an extension of the parking lot to some degree and
does not have the flavor of a true drive-thru. If he understood Mr. Evans
correctly and the concerns af the Commissioners on the drive-thru, we are
looking at a master plan here, and he would hate to see the whole thing held
up because of the drive-thru on Pad 3. Perhaps it could be approved subject
to, if Mr. Evans wanted a drive-thru on Pad 3 at a later date, he would need
to come back for conditionaf approvaf on that.
Chairperson Campbell said agreement had been reached on that, but they
were now talking about Pad 4, which is the problem.
Commissioner Tschopp restated that this is a unique development, and the
Commission should feel very fortunate to have this type of development
coming into the City on a very viable corner. There is a lot of big box
development going on in this valley, and there are a lot of big boxes still
looking for places to play. He said he woufd hate to see an opportunity like
this go down the road because we got hung up on a drive-thru that can be
adequately shielded from the road. �
Commissioner Tschopp moved to, by Minute Motion, approve the master
plan as presented, with the amendments to mitigate the traffic concerns on Cook
Street that may arise, that the median be maintained on the Berger side of the
street, that if the applicant desires a drive-thru an Pad 3 he would need to come
back to the Commission for a conditional use permit, and that Pad 4 be adequately
screened from the street so that the drive-thru is not visible from Cook Street.
Motion was seconded by Lopez. With a vote of 2-2, with Commissioner Jonathan
ABSENT, the motion FAILED.
Mr. Drell stated that because the motion faifed, the Commission could
forward this case to the Council as no action or it could be continued to the
next meeting when there will be five Commissioners present.
Upon question by Commissioner Finerty relative to his preference, Mr. Evans
responded that he prefer having the matter continued. Commissioner Finerty
asked if it would be a hardship for Mr. Evans if the Commission continued it
27
MINUTES
PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4, 2003
to the first meeting in December. She said if Mr. Evans got his decision then
and had all of his pictures, he could go to the City Council the first meeting
in January. Mr. Evans agreed.
Commissioner Finerty moved to, by Minute Motion, continue this matter to
the meeting of December 2, 2003. Motion was seconded by Campbell and carried
by a 4-0 vote, with Commissioner Jonathan ABSENT.
Chairperson Campbell reopened the public hearing.
Mr. Evans asked if his understanding was correct that the drive-thru
issue was the only question to resolve.
Commissioner Finerty responded that this was not the only issue from her
point of view. She noted she had listed her issues, and whether Mr. Evans
chooses in that month's time to address them was up to him.
Mr. Evans offered a suggestion that the drive-thru be eliminated on both
Pads 3 and 4 and let those be restaurants, whether they be fast food or not.
If they have a user that is going to require drive-thru, they can come back for
some kind of conditional use permit on that pad. He suggested that in order
to keep this ball moving, they would go back and work on the drive-thru
element and bring it back to the Commission at some point in time for the
purpose of the Planning Commission's approval of the master plan of the
project and Phase 1, that the drive-thru be taken off the table with regard to
Pads 3 and 4 and let those be sit down restaurants for the moment and
come back and justify that as a condition at a later date and time if
necessary.
Commissioner Tschopp said what the applicant was requesting was that he
amend his motion to include Pad 4 not having a drive-thru, and if he wanted
drive-thru's on Pads 3 or 4, he would need to come back to the Commission
for special approval.
Mr. Drell noted that the maker of the motion for continuance would have to
make a motion for reconsideration.
Commissioner Finerty moved to, by Minute Motion, reconsider. Motion was
seconded by Chairperson Campbell and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Commissioner
Jonathan ABSENT.
:
MINUTES
PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 4. 2003
Commissioner Tschopp moved to amend his prior motion to include that
Pads 3 and 4 be approved without drive-thru's and if the applicant wishes drive-
thru's on those pads, he will need to resubmit for a special consideration. All other
portions of his previous motion would remain as previously stated. Motion was
seconded by Commissioner Lopez.
Commissioner Finerty stated that she would now support it; however, for the
City Council, she would still like her other comments of concern to be
forwarded.
Mr. Drell stated that with regard to Commissioner's comment about the
architecture, he believed the project needed a distinctive signature, which is
not yet there, and he thought the applicant understood that. He said he felt
the applicant was looking for enough encouragement that the project is a
reality to make that effort. He felt the architecture would evolve, especially
as the tenants start coming in. Part of the signature of The Gardens was the
arches, but the other signature is Tommy Bahama, so the tenants start
creating the character, which you don't see in the drawings right now.
Mr. Evans agreed and said in the meeting with ARC, it was their
intention to work on those elements and improve on them. He said
they were searching for the right way to do it because they had a focal
point at the plaza, the gateway, and they had worked really hard on
getting it together. There needed to be some studies on it that they
were aware of, and ARC was aware of them, and they had agreed
they would work on it.
Acti�n:
Chairperson Campbell declared the public hearing closed.
Chairperson Campbell called for the vote, and the motion carried by a 4-0
vote, with Commissioner Jonathan ABSENT.
It was moved by Commissioner Finerty, seconded by Commissioner
Tschopp, approving the findings as presented by staff. Motion carried 4-0
(with Commissioner Jonathan absent).
It was moved by Commissioner Finerty, seconded by Commissioner
Tschopp, adopting Planning Commission Resolution No. 2231,
recommending to City Council approval of Case Nos. PP 03-11 and DA 03-
03, subject to conditions as amended. Motion carried 4-0 (with
Commissioner Jonathan absent).
29
PLANNING COMMISSION RESOLUTION NO. 2396
A RESOLUTION OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION OF THE
CITY OF PALM DESERT, CALIFORNIA, RECOMMENDING
TO CITY COUNCIL APPROVAL OF AN AMENDMENT TO AN
APPROVED PRECISE PLAN OF DESIGN AND PARKING
ADJUSTMENT TO ALLOW A DRIVE-THRU SPECIALTY
COFFEE OUTLET ADJACENT TO COOK STREET, PAD #4,
37-825 COOK STREET.
CASE NO. PP 03-11 AMENDMENT #1
WHEREAS, the City Council by its Resolution No. 04-26 did on April 8, 2004
approve Case No. PP 03-11, subject to conditions; and
WHEREAS, the Planning Commission of the City of Palm Desert, California, did on
the 2nd day of May, 2006, hold a duly noticed public hearing which was continued to May
16, 2006, to consider the above noted request; and
WHEREAS, a drive-thru restaurant was considered on this site as part of the CEQA
review of the original PP 03-11 project for which a Negative Declaration of Environmental
Impact was certified; and
WHEREAS, at said public hearing, upon hearing and considering all testimony and
arguments, if any, of all interested persons desiring to be heard, said Planning Commission
did find the following facts and reasons to exist to justify recommending approval of said
request:
1. The proposed precise plan amendment will comply with each of the
applicable provisions of this title, except for a parking adjustment permitted
through Municipal Code Section 25.58.360.
2. The proposed location of the drive-thru restaurant and the conditions under
which it will be operated and maintained will not be detrimental to the public
health, safety or general welfare, or be materially injurious to properties or
improvements in the vicinity.
3. The proposed precise plan amendment complies with the goals, objectives,
and policies of the City's General Plan and all alternatives considered in the
General Plan Update.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Planning Commission of the City
of Palm Desert, Califomia, as follows:
1. That the above recitations are true and correct and constitute the findings of
the Planning Commission in this case.
ATTEST:
PHILIP DRELL, Secretary
Palm Desert Pla fining Commission
PLANNING COMMISSION RESOLUTION NO. 2396
2. That the Planning Commission does hereby recommend to City Council
approval of Case No. PP 03-11 Amendment #1, subject to the attached
conditions.
PASSED, APPROVED and ADOPTED at a regular meeting of the Palm Desert
Planning Commission, held on this 16th day of May, 2006, by the following vote, to wit:
AYES: CAMPBELL, FINERTY, TANNER, TSCHOPP, LOPEZ
NOES: NONE
ABSENT: NONE
ABSTAIN: NONE
Cli)
JK. LOPEZ,,h4irperson An
PLANNING COMMISSION RESOLUTION NO. 2396
CONDITIONS OF APPROVAL
CASE NO. PP 03-11 AMENDMENT #1
Department of Community Development:
1. That the conditions of approval imposed by City Council Resolution No. 04-26 shall
continue in full force and effect except that a drive-thru specialty coffee outlet shall
be permitted on Pad #4 and that the required parking ratio for the commercial
portion of the project shall be established at 4.98 parking spaces per 1,000 square
feet.
/1
TO:
DATE:
CASE NO:
CITY OF PALM DESERT
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
STAFF REPORT
Planning Commission
May 16, 2006 continued from May 2, 2006
PP 03-11 Amendment #1
REQUEST: Approval of an amendment to previous approvals to allow a drive-thru
specialty coffee outlet adjacent to Cook Street, Pad No. 4, 37-825
Cook Street.
APPLICANT: Prest Vuksic Architects
44-530 San Pablo Avenue,
Suite 200
Palm Desert, CA 92260
I. BACKGROUND:
The Evans Company
Attn: Rick Evans
74-000 Country Club Drive
Palm Desert, CA 92260
The original "Evans" plan proposed drive-thru restaurants on Pad Nos. 3 and 4
adjacent to Cook Street. As a result of Planning Commission input during the
November 4, 2003 hearing (minutes enclosed), Mr. Evans withdrew the request for
drive-thrus on Pad Nos. 3 and 4 with the understanding that he could come back
later with a specific tenant proposal.
II. PROPOSED PROJECT:
The applicant requests approval of an amendment to PP 03-11 to allow a drive-thru
specialty coffee outlet on Pad No. 4 north of the access driveway midway between
Gerald Ford and University Drive.
Specifically, the applicant proposes a three -tenant 4,280 square foot building
(previously 3,800 square feet) with the north space being a 1,240 square foot Bad
Ass Coffee outlet with drive-thru window in the north elevation and outdoor patio in
the east setback adjacent to Cook Street.
A. CIRCULATION:
The drive-thru lane will enter from "Main Street" at the north end of the
parking lot, proceed east then turn south parallel to Cook Street toward the
drive-thru window. Stacking for seven (7) vehicles per code is provided. A
one-way exit from the drive-thru connects back to "Main Street."
STAFF REPORT
CASE NO. PP 03-11 AMENDMENT #1
MAY 16, 2006
In order to preserve adequate circulation in the parking lot, a "bypass" lane
is to be provided at the south end of the parking lot along with angled parking
spaces adjacent to the drive-thru lane.
Circulation is acceptable.
B. PARKING:
The stacking lane, bypass lane, building reconfiguration, larger building and
new patio area all conspire to reduce the amount of parking which was
previously designed in this area of the site.
The current site plan provides 34 parking spaces whereas the original design
had 52 spaces in this area.
The commercial portion of the plan was originally parked at five spaces per
1,000 square feet. The changes in this plan (reduced parking and increased
building area) bring the ratio to 4.98 spaces per 1,000 square feet over the
total commercial area.
Pursuant to Municipal Code Section 25.58.360 Commission may approve a
parking adjustment from five spaces per 1,000 square feet to 4.98 spaces
per 1,000 square feet as part of the requested precise plan amendment.
C. ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPING:
The low profile (20 feet high) building will provide an attractive desert
contemporary look with significant shading provided by trellises and
overhangs.
Landscaping for this area of the project is part of the overall Desert Willow
style landscape plan for the center.
Landscaping and architecture was given preliminary approval by the ARC
(Architectural Review Commission) April 11, 2006.
Cross sections provided by the applicant (see enclosed packet) indicate that
the parking lot surface is 5 feet 5 inches higher than the adjacent point on
Cook Street. This grade difference, a new four (4) foot high masonry screen
2
STAFF REPORT
CASE NO. PP 03-11 AMENDMENT #1
MAY 16, 2006
wall and landscape material at the top of slope will obscure any view of the
drive-thru lane and the pick-up window from the public street.
III. ANALYSIS:
The proposal, if approved, will result in an architecturally attractive building which
includes a drive-thru pick-up window, stacking lane and patio area.
The drive-thru facility will be obscured from view from a public street by differences
in grade, a four -foot high wall and landscape planting.
Circulation in the parking lot and through the drive-thru is well planned and will work
well.
The reduction in parking from five spaces per 1,000 square feet to 4.98 spaces per
1,000 square feet requires an adjustment pursuant to Municipal Code Section
25.58.350.
Staff observation confirms that centers which meet the five spaces per 1,000 square
feet code requirement are never 100% full even at the busiest time. Witness Desert
Crossing where 40% occupancy is the norm and only 60% to 75% during holiday
season.
A reduction of .02 spaces per 1,000 square feet for the commercial portion of this
project will be insignificant to the project as a whole.
Staff recommends approval of the amendment to allow a drive-thru on Pad No. 4
with parking adjustment discussed above.
IV. CEQA REVIEW:
The original proposal under Case PP 03-11 for which a Negative Declaration of
Environmental Impact was certified included a drive-thru restaurant on this pad. No
further environmental review is necessary.
3
STAFF REPORT
CASE NO. PP 03-11 AMENDMENT #1
MAY 16, 2006
V. RECOMMENDATION
That Case No. PP 03-11 Amendment #1 including a parking adjustment be
approved, subject to conditions.
Prepared by:
/ei4AZ�Steh `�
Planning Manager
Review and oncur:.7
Homer Croy
ACM for De�e�bpment Services
/tm
4
Reviewed and Approved by:
P it Drell
Director of Community Development