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2. INTRODUCTION
The Palm Desert General Plan charts the path for Palm Desert’s future and is the
principal tool for guiding the physical form and development of the City. At the same
time, it is a visionary document that lays out the community’s long-term goals and
objectives for the future. It contains the City’s official policies on land use and
community design, mobility, housing, infrastructure, economics, health, and public
facilities and services. Its purpose is to identify planning goals; provide a basis for
decision-making; and inform citizens, developers, decision-makers, and other cities of
the ground rules for development within Palm Desert.
The General Plan is used by the City Council and Planning Commission to evaluate
public and private development proposals and to make funding and budget decisions.
It is used by city staff to direct their day-to-day activities, particularly those related to
building and development. It is used by residents and neighborhood groups to
understand the City’s long-range plans and proposals for different parts of the City.
The entirety of this document, including the vision, guiding principles, goals, policies,
actions, various maps and diagrams, and figures shall be understood to be the City’s
official policy guiding the physical design and construction of Palm Desert.
In 2013, more than 100 interested residents, business owners, and policy makers
worked together to develop a 20-year strategic plan for the City. The yearlong process
and resulting document, the 2013-2033 Strategic Plan, Envision Palm Desert - Forward
Together (“Envision Palm Desert”), laid the groundwork and direction for this General
Plan Update. The community members developed an overall community vision,
priorities, strategies, action steps, and measures of success. Envision Palm Desert
identified the City’s Vision and several important strategies that pertain to planning,
land use and transportation, including:
• Expand economic competitiveness
• Build on tourism, education, arts, and business successes
El Paseo, Palm Desert
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• Enhance quality of life
• Attract new employers
• Leverage universities
• Create an authentic downtown
• Anticipate new demographics and market trends
• Capitalize on the city’s outstanding climate and geography
• Expand access throughout the City
Given the connections to planning, land use, and transportation, the Strategic Plan
recommended that the City prepare a General Plan Update. The General Plan Update
seeks to bring the plan up-to-date by:
• Creating updated policies for achieving the priorities set forth in the Strategic
Plan for: Arts & Culture; Economic Development; Education; Energy &
Sustainability; Land Use, Housing & Open Space; Parks & Recreation; Public
Safety & Emergency Services; Tourism & Marketing, and Transportation.
• Creating policies and framework to foster the development of a true city
center/downtown.
• Creating policies and implementation actions to further enhance the city’s
leading sustainability and energy efficiency efforts.
As such, this General Plan update is serving as an implementation tool of the City’s 20 -
year strategic plan, providing a road map for the physical changes to City envisioned
by the community.
The City of Palm Desert is located in the center of the Coachella Valley, which is in the
geographic center of Riverside County. The city is bordered by Rancho Mirage to the
west and Indian Wells to the south and east, and the unincorporated community of
Bermuda Dunes to the east. The existing city limits generally extend southward from
Interstate 10, past Highway 111 and along Highway 74 to the foot of the Santa Rosa
Mountains between Monterey Avenue and Washington Street. The City’s Sphere of
Influence (SOI) encompasses areas to the north and south of the city, including
portions of the Santa Rosa Mountains south of the city limits and the unincorporated
communities of Bermuda Dunes to the east, and Sun City Palm Desert north of
Interstate 10. Figure 2.1 depicts the Palm Desert City Limits, SOI and location relative
to other nearby cities or communities.
Palm Desert cultural influences
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Regarded as the geographic center of Coachella Valley, the City of Palm Desert and the
surrounding San Bernardino basin were first settled by the Cahuilla tribe. Primarily a
farming community, evidence of Cahuilla settlements date back an estimated 2,000-
2,500 years. In 1774, Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza arrived in the Coachella
Valley where he established a trade route between the Monterey-Sonoma area and
Southern California, known as Alta California.
Over the next century, trade flourished throughout the Coachella Valley region,
leading to the construction of the Southern Pacific Railroad and the establishment of a
major station in Indio by 1876. Wells, reservoirs and farms were constructed over the
next several decades. In 1943, the first residential area was developed in conjunction
with an Army camp, and in 1945, brothers Randall, Carl, Clifford, and Phil Henderson,
successfully founded the 1,600- acre Town of Palm Desert. Regarded as Palm Desert’s
founding fathers, Clifford, Carl, Randall, and Phil Henderson successfully developed
Palm Desert by balancing desert terrain with monumental projects. Clifford was
known as the visionary who built large scale projects in surrounding cities, while
Randall was known as the expert on the desert and mountain environment. The
brothers envisioned a desert oasis were Randall could relocate his publishing plant as
then editor of “Desert Magazine.” Soon after, Palm Desert became a resort town
featuring the Shadow Mountain Club enticing visitors with cottages, restaurants, a golf
course, tennis courts, stables and a figure-eight swimming pool. It became a regular
retreat for celebrities, politicians, and affluent families. Within two years, Palm Desert
transformed into a business and entertainment hub with the establishment of El
Paseo, a visionary commercial and up-scale shopping district that would become the
regional destination it is today.
The initial spark of development along Highway 111 and El Paseo may be attributed to
two major anchors: the city’s first U.S. Post Office (1947), and the opening of the
Desert Magazine Building (1948), a 17,000 square-foot commercial building housing
the Desert Magazine, local newspapers, an art gallery, gem shop, and bookstore. By
1953, Palm Desert included 30 miles of roads, over 150 homes, and 14 hotels. Private
investment in the town totaled an estimated $3.5 million (or $45 million, as adjusted
for inflation).
Early on, Palm Desert became known as the “Golf Capitol of the World.” However, the
city’s developments and reputation quickly diversified throughout the 1960s and 70s,
with the city doubling in size and population every 3.5 years. Between 1980 and 2000,
the Palm Desert grew from 11,000 to 41,000 residents. The City of Palm Desert was
officially incorporated in November 1973, and later re-incorporated as a California
Charter City in 1997. By 2010, the City had a reported population of 48,445, with a
median household income of $53,456 (U.S. Census). While Palm Desert’s historic core
is centered around Highway 111 and El Paseo, the completion of Interstate 10 in the
1960s shifted much of the city’s development activity to the north, including:
residential neighborhoods, golf resorts, university campuses, retail centers and
industrial facilities.
Palm Desert in 1954
Historic Palm Desert
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The General Plan is governed by California Government Code, which requires that
“each planning agency shall prepare and the legislative body of each county and city
shall adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for the physical development of
the county or city” (California Government Code §65300).
Within this general requirement, some aspects of the general plan are tightly
prescribed, while others are left to the discretion of individual cities or counties. In
sum, the general plan:
• Must set forth a “statement of development policies” that includes
“objectives, principles, standards, and plan proposals,” and must include
seven mandatory elements – land use, circulation, housing, conservation,
open space, noise and safety – as well as any optional elements the City
chooses. (Gov’t Code § 65302).
• Must be an “internally consistent and compatible statements of policies.”
(Gov’t Code § 65300.5).
• “. . . may include any other subjects which, in the judgment of the legislative
body, relate to the physical development of the county or city.” (Gov’t Code
§ 65303).
• Should “accommodate local conditions and circumstances” (Gov’t Code §
65300.7)
• “. . .may be adopted in any format deemed appropriate or convenient by the
legislative body, including the combining of elements,” provided it meets
other minimum requirements (Gov’t Code § 65301).
This General Plan meets the above legal requirements and also introduces some
discretionary elements the City has deemed appropriate. This is sanctioned by
California law, which allows a general plan to “include any other subjects [that] relate
to the physical development of the…city” (California Government Code §65303).
These topics include urban form and character, public health, economic development,
infrastructure, and arts and culture. While part of the General Plan, the Housing
Element is a stand-alone volume that is updated more frequently than the other
elements. The Housing Element is not a part of this General Plan Update.
To start the General Plan planning process, an Existing Conditions Report was
prepared to collect and analyze data on current planning issues in Palm Desert for
each of the aforementioned topic areas. The Existing Conditions Report should be
referenced for additional background information on the Palm Desert General Plan.
The opening chapter of the General Plan lays out a vision for the City of Palm Desert
that the community is striving towards. The vision is intended to be realized over the
course of one or two generations of thoughtful growth and development. It is
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expected that the vision will help guide decisions relating to new development and
updates of the City’s various plans and ordinances.
The Introduction provides background on the reasons for updating the General Plan,
including a brief synopsis of the challenges and opportunities facing the City. This
chapter also describes the role of the General Plan, how it is intended to be used and
administered, and an overview of the Plan.
This element presents the approach to land use and community character, in addition
to policies regarding the fiscal health of the City. Within this element are the General
Plan land use designations, the designation map, goals and policies describing the
community’s preferences and priorities for the character and appearance of the City.
In addition, this element discusses historic preservation, strategies for in-fill
development, local arts, employment, and resorts and tourism. This element also
presents approaches to creating a walkable city that is well connected and accessible
to all members of the community.
This element presents the approach to transportation, addressing access and mobility
within the City. Included in this element are descriptions of street types and the
circulation network map as well as goals and policies addressing existing and future
transportation facilities in Palm Desert for pedestrians, bicycles, and transit. This
element addresses multi-occupant modes of transportation, identifying local and
regional circulation issues, and outlines an open space trail network.
This element presents the community’s priorities for realizing a healthier community.
It includes goals and policies that address existing community health concerns as well
approaches to managing new development to prevent future health issues. It covers
topics such as accessible healthcare, air quality, healthy eating, active living, and parks
and recreation.
This element presents the community’s approach for dealing with archaeological and
cultural resources, biological resources, water resources, air quality, energy resources,
and open space and conservation.
This element contains the community’s approach to reducing the potential risks
resulting from natural and environmental hazards such as earthquakes, floods, fire
and extreme weather. The element contains goals and policies that will help guide the
City’s decisions related to new development and the risks to the health, safety, and
welfare of local hazards.
This element addresses the approach for minimizing the community’s exposure to
harmful noise levels. The element analyzes and quantifies future noise levels. It
Local landmark and community
character
Inspirational pedestrian and bicycle
safety and mobility
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includes a map summarizing the results, and presents goals and policies for managing
exposure to excessive noise.
This element addresses public services and utilities across the City. More specifically,
this element includes information regarding water utilities, public buildings and
facilities, police and fire protection, schools and libraries, and emergency response.
The City Center Area Plan presents a vision for the future of the greater Highway 111
corridor area, including El Paseo, the San Pablo corridor, and the Civic Center. It
provides a vision, a summary of the community input, guiding principles, goals, and
policies for transforming the 111 corridor area into Palm Desert’s downtown.
Implementation actions for the City Center Area Plan are contained within Chapter 12 .
The General Plan provides a vision for the future of Palm Desert and guidance about
how to attain that future. City staff, the City Council, the Planning Commission, and
other boards and commissions, as part of their duties to the City, will carry out the
goals and policies of the plan. Plan implementation will be achieved through the
adoption, implementation and revision of the municipal code, annual budget, capital
improvements program, and through on-going decisions about development
proposals. Indeed, all City programs, policies and actions must be made consistent
with this General Plan to meet state requirements.
To assist with the effort of implementing this General Plan, the final chapter,
Implementation, provides a list of actions that the City will undertake to carry out the
vision. Each action includes a description, a level of priority, a timeframe for
accomplishing the tasks, and the responsible parties for each action. This chapter also
includes a list of major physical improvements known at the time of writing and
indicators to measure the successful implementation of the General Plan.
City Center Area Plan Development Strategy
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In addition to the above chapters, the General Plan also includes the State-mandated
Housing Element. Since the Housing Element is updated more frequently than the rest
of the General Plan, it is contained in a separate volume and is not being updated at
this time.
Each element of the General Plan is organized with the following sections:
A summary of the scope and purpose of the element.
A short explanation of the mandatory state
requirements for each element – what must be included in the section to be certified
as a legally binding document.
A summary of the issues facing the community. The issues serve as
background for the goals and policies and are derived from the Existing Conditions
Report prepared as part of this General Plan update.
Each element contains goals and policies responding to the
key issues associated with achieving the community’s vision, and are intended to
provide clear direction in how the City will implement the overall vision of this plan.
Together, the General Plan language creates a hierarchy of goals and policies that will
be mandated, encouraged, or allowed by the City over the next 20 years.
Each element of this General Plan contains goals and policies. Implementation actions
are included in Chapter 12 “Implementation,” but are organized by the same topics as
each chapter. All of these guide decision-making and are defined as follows:
Overall statement describing the envisioned end state for the community.
Goals are broad in both purpose and aim, but are designed specifically to establish
directions and outcomes. The following is an example of a goal:
Land Use Goal 1: Quality Spaces. A beautiful city with a balance of high quality
open spaces and high quality urban areas.
Specific position statements that support the achievement of goals and
serve as guides to the City Council, Planning Commission, other City commissions and
boards, and City staff when reviewing development proposals and making other
decisions. Policies seek to achieve the goals by mandating, encouraging, or permitting
certain actions. Certain policies are critical and must be implemented. Thus,
compliance with the policy or action is mandatory. Language used to describe this
intent includes will, must, require, prohibit, conduct, maintain and implement. Other
policies are strongly encouraged by the City, but total implementation may not be
possible, thus compliance is not mandatory. Language used to describe this intent
Inspirational multi-family housing
Inspirational mixeduse
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includes should, may, encourage, consider, explore, allow, discourage and promote.
The following is an example of a policy in the Palm Desert General Plan:
Land Use Policy 1.1: Phasing of public facilities. Require new parks, open spaces
and public facilities be constructed concurrent with, or prior to, the development
of each neighborhood. All required parks, open spaces and public facilities should
be constructed before 75 percent of the dwelling units are constructed.
The General Plan is supported by a variety of maps, diagrams and illustrations, which
reinforce the text of each element. Graphics are incorporated into the General Plan to
delineate land use and circulation patterns, community focal points, open space and
recreation facilities, biological and cultural resources, and areas requiring special
consideration or study. Important or significant environmental resource and hazard
areas are also mapped, as well as public and quasi-public facilities. These official maps
carry equal authority to the goals and policies of the General Plan.
Development proposals and infrastructure projects must be analyzed and tested for
consistency with the goals, policies, and programs in every applicable element of the
General Plan, regardless of whether they are initiated by a developer or the City. On
an ongoing basis, the City must assure and maintain consistency of the General Plan
with adopted Specific Plans and the City Zoning Ordinance. Similarly, each year, the
Capital Inprovements Program shall be reviewed by the Planning Commission to
ensure the City’s planned infrastructure investments are consistent with this General
Plan. This test of General Plan compliance is also a required criterion for determining
significant impacts under the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act.
In the event uncertainty exists regarding the location of boundaries of any land use
category, proposed public facility symbol, circulation alignment, or other symbol or
line found on the official maps of the General Plan, the following procedures will be
used to resolve such uncertainty.
Boundaries shown in the General Plan and on official maps as approximately following
the limits of any municipal corporation are to be construed as following these limits.
Boundaries shown as following or approximately following section lines, half or
quarter section lines shall be construed as following such lines.
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Where a land use category applied to a parcel is not mapped to include an adjacent
street or alley, the category shall be considered to extend to the centerline of the right
of way. Boundaries shown as separated from, parallel, or approximately parallel to any
of the features listed above shall be construed to be parallel to such features and at
such distances therefrom as are shown on the map. Symbols that indicate appropriate
locations for proposed public facilities are not property-specific. Rather, they indicate
only the general area within which a specific facility should be established.
The Palm Desert General Plan will be implemented over an extended period of time
(20+ years, with a time horizon of 2040). During this time, the long-range planning
efforts for Palm Desert will continue using the goals and objectives as a guide.
However, a general plan is a living document, and presents the outcomes desired by
the community based on their current goals and local conditions. As the city grows
and changes, it may become necessary to amend specific policies and implementation
actions as economic and demographic conditions change while new ideas about
growth and conservation are formed. In fact, State Law encourages annual reviews of
implementation actions and recommends that the entire General Plan be thoroughly
reviewed every five years to ensure it is still consistent with the community’s goals.
Any part of a general plan may be amended to accommodate changing conditions.
Property owners, the Planning Commission, the City Council, or City staff may propose
amendments. Proposed changes must be reviewed by the Planning Commission and
the City Council at public hearings and the potential of environmental impacts must be
evaluated in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act.
Community members, neighborhood groups and local organizations are encouraged
to get involved in the on-going planning efforts of the City and to participate in the
implementation of the General Plan. By active, thoughtful involvement, residents can
be part of the process of shaping and growing Palm Desert to make it an even more
active, prosperous and welcoming city than it is today.
California Government Code requires that the planning agency “render an annual
report to the legislative body (City Council) on the status of the Plan and the progress
in its implementation” (Section 65400(b)). State law further requires that the Housing
Element be reviewed and updated at least once every eight (8) years. As part of this
review, the City will consider progress in the context of the indicators presented
within this General Plan. Similarly, each year, the Capital Improvements Program shall
be reviewed by the Planning Commission to ensure the planned infrastructure
investments are consistent with this General Plan.
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