The Planning Commission voted to recommend that the city council adopt new design standards for hillside homes Tuesday evening.
The Palm Desert Planning Commission advanced plans for new hillside residential design standards Tuesday that will apply to residential development within certain hillside areas in the city.
The city initiated the process for new guidelines for hillside homes over a year ago, with a goal of creating clearer and more formal design standards for homes on the rocky hillsides overlooking Palm Desert — and to balance the natural beauty of the hillsides with residential development.
Over the years, Palm Desert has regulated hillside development using neighborhood master plans, zoning, grading rules, the creation of parks, and other methods.
“Still, there are opportunities to improve the consistency and quality of future development. There are concerns that some hillside projects are too visible, that natural topography is being lost, and that the iconic views to and from the hills are being diminished,” states a city staff report.
John Kaliski with the John Kaliski Architects presented the proposed design standards on Tuesday. The standards are wide-ranging and span a number of different categories, including grading, trees and plants, structure and building, exterior lighting, and colors. The objectives of the design standards largely focus on conserving views of the city’s hillsides and mountains.
The design standards document “basically establishes building regimens that fundamentally encourage people to blend their projects into the hillsides, so that the iconic aspect of the hillsides are maintained, and to the degree that it does that it may in some ways flatten the creative expression of what individuals may want to do, but it will enhance the sense of commonwealth of what everybody in the city shares,” said Kaliski.
Examples of some of the design standards include requiring that the highest point of any structure visible from Highway 74 be set below any nearby major ridgeline, prohibiting structures on slopes greater than 20%, and banning the planting of trees within 150 feet of a major ridgeline.
The draft guidelines includes maps of all identified major and minor ridgelines as well as the areas where the new design guidelines will apply, generally in two separate hillside areas surrounding the Palm Desert Cross Trail and southwest of Ironwood Country Club.
Project proposals that are deemed compliant with these standards will be eligible for a slightly more streamlined review process, and after staff review will proceed directly to the Planning Commission for review and approval.
Proposed projects that aren’t compliant (such as a property owner proposing a bigger home than allowed) will be reviewed by the Architectural Review Commission, then the Planning Commission for a recommendation, and finally to the city council for a final decision.
The Planning Commission unanimously voted to recommend that the city council adopt the new design standards. The Palm Desert City Council will make a final decision on the design standards at a later date.