The Palm Desert City Council recently approved a zoning amendment that will allow single-family homes and day care centers in areas immediately surrounding El Paseo.
The council unanimously approved the amendment on Oct. 23, with Mayor Jan Harnik and Mayor Pro Tem Evan Trubee recusing themselves because they own nearby property.
The action was largely a technical correction — city staff had previously presented the zoning amendment for approval by resolution instead of as an ordinance, and the same changes had already been approved by the council in August.
The approved zoning ordinance amendment changes the city’s municipal code to allow single-family residential homes and day care centers in the Downtown Edge-Overlay zoning district, which covers about 226 acres along the edges where the city’s downtown area meets surrounding residential uses.
The impacted areas include parcels of land along Alessandro Drive, Shadow Mountain Drive, and Tumbleweed Lane. Single-family homes will be allowed by-right, while day care centers will require a conditional use permit. A related general plan amendment also removes a 12 units per acre minimum density requirement in the area, and sets maximum density at 40 units per acre.
The downtown edge transition overlay district is one of several zoning districts established in 2016 as part of a comprehensive update to the City’s General Plan, which guides development in the city. Currently, the district is mostly residential with some nonresidential uses mixed in.
Because the area already has residential homes that predate the zoning district’s creation, the amendment was mostly intended to address “inconsistencies between the General Plan and the Zoning Ordinance,” according to a city staff report.
Day care centers have also historically been allowed in the area. The site of a former day care center at 44911 Cabrillo Way (seen in the image above), for example, wouldn’t have been allowed to be used for a new daycare under the zoning district regulations without the Oct. 23 tweak to the code.
In other words, the amendments will help the regulations that guide development in the area better match the existing conditions.