The landscaping at the corner of Highway 111 and Portola Avenue was just one example of an area of the city where landscape rules were put in place but landscape elements were later removed or neglected.
The Palm Desert Architectural Review Commission (ARC) raised concerns Tuesday about its ability to enforce landscaping conditions it places on approved projects, with Chair James McIntosh questioning whether the commission's tree and planting requirements carry any practical weight.
McIntosh raised the issue during the regular monthly meeting, citing two corners in the city where trees that had been required as conditions of approval were later cut down.
"We just go through this effort, this committee, especially Commissioner Sanchez, with tree species, size, location, all this sort of things for important purposes," McIntosh said. "And then in a couple years, you cut the tree down. And it seems like kind of a futile effort if it can't be enforced down the road."
McIntosh noted that newly planted trees may appear insignificant at first but are intended to mature and provide canopy cover — particularly at locations such as gas stations on prominent street corners, where landscaping serves an aesthetic and screening function for the broader community.
"The trees are kind of insignificant when you first put them in, but we're all hoping that they're going to mature and have a nice canopy and add to the overall aesthetic of the community," he said. "So I'm just wondering — what's the follow-up, or are we kind of wasting our time trying to make them do stuff that's really not going to happen?"
One of the corners McIntosh referenced is the Arco gas station at Portola Avenue and Highway 111. A city staff member said the original approval for that property included a grass lawn along the Highway 111 frontage and that city code enforcement staff was in discussion about how to address the situation.
A complicating factor, staff noted, is that turf removal is generally considered exempt from landscape plan requirements under Coachella Valley Water District rules, making enforcement less straightforward.
Another ARC commissioner also raised a related concern, noting that the city had approved a sign program for a building at the corner of Highway 111 where Palm Desert and Rancho Mirage meet, but that window signage had since proliferated at the site in ways the commission had not sanctioned.
The discussion broadened to include a call for a code update that would give the commission's conditions more enforcement force. One commissioner proposed a motion asking the city to add such language to the municipal code.
"Making sure that planning code has teeth, so that all these things that we sit and review are actually there 100 years from now, theoretically," the commissioner said.
Staff acknowledged that a comprehensive update to the city's Unified Development Code is underway, but cautioned that code changes move slowly. Any amendment would require a minimum 20-day public notice period per hearing, review by the Planning Commission and City Council, and additional time for implementation — putting any adopted changes several months out at the earliest.
McIntosh said he would like to see the issue pursued regardless.
"If we don't do that, then we shouldn't be enforcing tree ordinances at all," he said. "Because it just is a waste of time."