Today's Desert Sun (see the article HERE) has a story about the status of Port Lawrence. As you may know, Port Lawrence is a mixed use developent planned for downtown Palm Springs at the corner of Alejo, between Palm Canyon and Indian Canyon. You also may know that this huge empty parcel of land has been fenced-off since the City allowed demolition in June 2006 of the (previous) structures, some of which had successful retail stores operating from them. I wholeheartedly support the new development and hope that it is completed, but I did not support the city's approval to demolish the previous buildings before they had a better idea about how long it was going to take the developer to move forward (see photos above). I imagine the city would tell you today, two years later, that they had no idea it would take this long. I think it's a must, going forward, that the city place time restrictions for completion for developers' projects. In this case it's tragic that the city allowed demolition of almost an entire block back in 2006. Today's paper tells us we can't expect to see a finished product until 2010 or 2011. At this point, with construction crews no where in sight, we can't even be certain that we won't have a huge parcel of vacant land in our downtown for many years to come. Let's hope that we see some positive activity there soon!
Let me know your thoughts on how the city council handled this project.
Russell Hill 760.902.3121
4 comments:
Russell-
Thanks so much for this update. I live in Deepwell and have been wondering about this project for quite some time. Do you have any information regarding the property at the corner of Mesquite and Palm Canyon. I believe the development is called www.PScameron.com.
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This whole Port Lawrence episode is an absolute disgrace. There were some really neat old buildings on that block that were torn down and now we have nothing for the foreseeable future. PS is so anxious to tear down any attractive older buildings in the name of development. Instead of modeling itself on Orange County, Palm Springs should take a lesson from Carmel or Santa Barbara. They both have kept their historic downtowns and they have thrived because of that. People aren't coming to PS so they can see more chain stores and nondescript developments.
I couldn't agree more. And the same goes for new residential. I'm much more inclined to support the rehabing of homes and a city over new construction and developments...especially in such a town as ours where people come to see a historical town filled with great golf courses, homes, restaurants--Hollywood's playground.
The Cameron is taking reservations for units. It's my understanding that construction won't start until a certain number of reservations have been secured. So, we conceivably could be waiting a long time!
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