Residents of Palm Springs asked planning officials of Agua Caliente to preserve the “village feel” of the downtown area as they redesign the entertainment district that once housed an iconic hotel—now demolished. The new 18-acre district is dubbed the Vision Agua Caliente master plan.
It will encompass a 68,000-square foot expansion of the existing Spa Casino, with a new hotel of as many as 350 rooms. There will also be a spa and fitness center, 50,000 SF of mixed use, cultural, retail space and an overlay zone that would limit the height of buildings to 175 ft.
One resident at the public meeting, Al Silverstein, asked the planners not to give in to “tall, ugly nondescript buildings.”
The planners say no plans are set in stone, especially the design. In fact, said Tom Davis, chief planning and development officers, “We don’t have a design.”
He added, “The master plan is laying out a land-use pattern that we’re going to test. And we’re going to test it by way of your comments, and by way of our internal designers and market researchers and so forth.”
Although the land lies within the city of Palm Springs limits, it is sovereign territory of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians.
Davis said the tribe hasn’t decided whether there will be two hotel buildings, or only one. However,
