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Palm Springs, California
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Iconic motel's future murky
Developer eyes site of Palm Desert Lodge
K Kaufmann
The Desert Sun
November 3, 2005
Ask almost anyone at the comer of Deep Canyon Road and Highway 111 which
they prefer - the funky '50s pink hotel or a new Walgreens - and the answer is
unequivocal.
"I wouldn't want a Walgreens," said Ryan Taylor, a lifelong resident of Palm
Desert who has been staying at the Palm Desert Lodge for two weeks while
looking for a condo.
The hotel's "been here forever," he said. "It's known all over the valley, and it's got
the best prices."
The fate of the hotel at 74-527 Highway 111 will be discussed at a special meeting
of the Palm Desert Historical Preservation Committee at Friday at City Hall.
Evergreen Devco, a commercial development firm with offices in Phoenix and
Glendale, has asked the committee for a preliminary evaluation of the site and
whether the city could classify the hotel as an historic building.
The company may be planning a Walgreens for the site, said Amir Hamidzadeh,
director of Building and Safety for Palm Desert.
Tyler Carlson, project manager for Evergreen, declined to comment on the
company's plans, but said he would be attending the meeting Friday.
Michael Noto, the hotel's general manager and a co-owner, was not available for
comment.
Built in the 1950s, the hotel is a concrete pink box that Jim West, a member of the
historical preservation committee, described as "very declarative (and) very visible
to people who came through the city."
ent MEETING DATF • o 5_
Ly CONTINUED TO la- —
❑ PASSED TO 2ND READING
Jose Omar Ornelas, the Desert S n
The Palm Desert Lodge on Highway
111
TALK OF THE DAY
Is the Palm Desert Lodge
worth saving?
A commercial development fire ,
has shown interest in changin
the site where the Palm Desert
Lodge slts.
PRO: There needs to he
cooperation with builders and ke
sure the property gets its best e
and that their needs are met.
CON: The building is an exam p= of
older roadside motels rare to fir
these days and carries the
nostalgia of an era gone by.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Palm Desert Historical
Preservation Committee
WHEN: 10 a.m. Friday
WHERE: City Hall
He also noted that pictures of the hotel and its trademark neon sign had been
included in "Palm Springs Weekend," a popular coffee table book on area architecture.
Mary Vartanian, another Palm Desert resident, said losing the hotel would be like "losing a little bit of your culture."
"It's like old Palm Springs," she said. "It's the good old days that brought us to where we are now."
Making any determination on the hotel's historic value may be complicated by the current state of Palm Desert's histc—'^
preservation ordinance though.
Committee members are in the process of updating the ordinance, which is vague on details of what constitutes a historic
site and how it should be evaluated.
The committee is allowed to make "surveys, studies or investigations as it deems necessary," according to the law.
Peter Moruzzi, who heads up the Palm Springs Modem Committee, a historical preservation nonprofit, said no action
should be taken until the hotel is evaluated by a qualified architectural historian, as is required in Palm Springs.
http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20051103&Category=NEWS05 &ArtNo... 11/3/2005
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'Those types of roadside accommodation, which were very common 40 years ago, are very rare today," he said. "It should
require a review prior to a decision being made."
Moruzzi pointed out similar hotels in Palm Springs, such as the Oasis and the Orchid Tree Inn, that had been evaluated by
the city.
Jan Holmlund, who is heading up the Palm Desert committee's efforts to update the ordinance, said, 'This committee is
attempting to meet all the modem challenges of historic preservation and retain the variety and vitality of the cultures that
brought Palm Desert into being so we end up with a visually exciting community."
And she noted that if a decision is made Friday, it will be reported to the city's Building Department, the Planning
Commission and the City Council. The council will make the final determination on the hotel's historic status.
Kent Routh, chair of the Historic Preservation Committee, said the group might be open to the kind of official evaluation
Moruzzi recommends.
"I think were going to try to move it a long as expeditiously as we can," Routh said of the Evergreen proposal. "But were
not going to cashier that place without some real thought about it."
Robert Pitchford, a member of the historical preservation committee, said there's a certain amount of sentimentality about
older buildings that tugs at one. But other considerations exist.
'That's an important comer, and I don't know whether it's getting its best use. But what is its best use?" he said.
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