Palm Desert City Council - Study Session, May 22, 2025

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[00:05:06] Mayor: Good afternoon. We are here for a study session on Thursday, May 22nd at 2:30 p.m. and we will start that. Did you want to do roll call or do we need to do anything?
[00:05:23] Clerk: I'll have the record reflect that all council members are present.
[00:05:25] Mayor: Thank you very much. Okay, so let's just get started. If you want to take these in order, is there... okay, yes.
[00:05:54] Sean Muer: Good afternoon, Mayor, members of the City Council. This is... I'm Sean Muer, the Community Services Manager in Public Works, and I have before you today a quick presentation on the updates that are planned for Civic Center Park Playground. We'll go ahead and go through the goals of this project, talk about the design and engineering contract that the city has in place with Insight and Michael Baker International, the public engagement that has been done for this project, and I'll show you the concept plan and the timeline moving forward.
[00:06:28] Mayor: Okay. And we'll just hold our questions to the end of your presentation if that works for you.
[00:06:32] Sean Muer: Either way works. That would be great. Thank you. Thank you. I do... I will mention that I also have representatives from both Michael Baker and Insight Landscape Architecture here to answer questions as well.
[00:06:44] Mayor: Thank you.
[00:06:46] Sean Muer: So, the project goals originally started with the concrete around the playground. Some of it has become uneven, and although our Public Works department does adjust those on a regular basis, it was becoming too much of a burden to continue to grind down concrete year after year, and eventually it needs to be replaced. We do have large trees in that area, and that kind of contributes to it, but we don't want to get rid of the large trees. We want to keep them in place and just update the playground and the surrounding concrete. So, the playground... the slide was broken in late 2024. It is an expensive replacement in and of itself; that's $30,000. Plus, the playground has met its reasonable life expectancy according to ASTM standards, which is about 15 to 20 years depending on the manufacturer that you ask. Also, we wanted to increase the accessible play features at the playground. With the new certification for autism that the city has, and then just allowing for more accessible play throughout the city, we wanted to incorporate some of those features into an updated design. And then also refreshing the surrounding structures. In 2023, we redid the interior of all the park restrooms at Civic Center Park as part of the big 50th anniversary event that was going to be going on. However, the exterior of the buildings wasn't painted as part of that project, and we wanted to incorporate that here. So, we entered into a design and engineering contract with Michael Baker International and their subcontractors, Insight. Here's the scope of their work: demo, grading, all the flatwork and concrete surrounding the playground and between the two sections of playground, and then incorporating new shade structures and expanding the shade around that area. Landscape and irrigation was added to the contract through a change order. And then public engagement has been a big component of this project as well. I'll show you some of that. And then I will mention the total contract amount is about $160,000 for the design.
[00:08:54] Sean Muer: So, for public engagement, we started a community survey at the end of March, opened that up on Engage Palm Desert. It has its own page if you'd like to go and view it there. It was open until the 21st of April for the survey, and we also did two in-person outreach events to try to gain more responses to the survey. So, we put out signs in the parks, and then we had two in-person events where we gave away ice cream in the park and asked families for their input on what type of play equipment they like to use, whether or not they felt there was enough shade or enough accessible equipment, and questions like that. Posted it on social media, a lot of thanks to the Public Affairs division for that. And then the survey was also on Engage. So, the responses on that were really great. We got 147 responses, which is very high for the amount of time that the survey was open and then the amount of public engagement events that happened. In comparison, we did five public engagement events for the North Sphere Park and received about the same.
[00:10:00] Presenter: Number of responses. So, this was very successful in the short amount of time that we had. That's some of the marketing materials that went out. And this was the online social media posts with the QR code to the survey. And these are popsicles and stands that we set up. One of them was on a Saturday and then the other one was on a Wednesday afternoon because we wanted to capture both weekend visitors and then after-school visitors as well. And as a result of the survey responses, Insight compiled a report. The main takeaways are kind of outlined here. I won't go through all of them, but essentially there are more people using the park in the morning than in the afternoon, and it's younger children. The over 10 group is a lower amount. Everyone is generally satisfied with the current facilities and some of the main design takeaways were that they like the natural elements versus some of the more contemporary elements from play structures. We did get a lot of comments about improving restrooms, drinking fountains, lighting, and so we've incorporated some of those components into the design. So this is the footprint for the project. It includes some of the area expanded from the current playground footprint, and you'll see that in the concept plan. But not outlined on this photo are the pavilions that are located throughout the park. So each of the pavilions will be repainted as part of the improvement project. This is just an aerial view of the concept plan. So you can see there's a lot more shade incorporated. And you'll notice on the west side of the park where there's currently kind of a zone where there's some concrete and some turf that's really not activated behind the restrooms there, we're expanding the playground in that direction to include more playground equipment and more shade. The scope of this project does also leave in place the existing fitness equipment that was put in in 2022, and the shade that's over that will stay as well. So, we're into construction plans and we expect to finalize those in the coming weeks and start them through plan check. And I have some renderings here of the type of play equipment that we're looking at incorporating with the nature-based play. There are kind of rock elements and then some faux wood elements. But you can also see, can I go back with this? There's a dome structure on the left there toward in the background and that allows for some quiet space for children who might become overwhelmed on a playground where there's a lot of noise and activity going on, but you can still see through it for safety. Also incorporated accessible swings, you'll see there, and some new slides and climbing features. So the timeline for this project: we've done the outreach events in April. This was taken to the Parks and Recreation Committee at their May meeting. Generally, the feedback was positive. They wanted to ensure that we were incorporating those ADA accessible features and also addressing some of the concerns of parents of children with autism that has been brought to the committee in the past. And we feel that this does address those needs. Today we're presenting to you all, and then in June we're looking at finalizing the bidding package and getting it out for construction bidding. Pending the permitting process, we'll start construction in July and hoping to complete in September. So looking to get this project done during the hotter summer months so that it can be reopened before people are out and about again for the season. And that concludes my presentation. I'm happy to take any questions. Thank you.
[00:14:05] Facilitator: So, let's begin with just questions. Are there any questions? Questions.
[00:14:13] Councilmember 1: Everything looks great. I do have a question when there was the renderings. And I think it just may be a hypothetical, but one of the pavilions looked square. Is it just they're going to repaint the existing ones or any of them going to be remodeled or reshaped?
[00:14:26] Presenter: The existing pavilions will just be repainted.
[00:14:28] Councilmember 1: Perfect. Thank you.
[00:14:30] Facilitator: Any questions?
[00:14:33] Councilmember 2: I have a couple. Does anybody know if the existing fitness equipment is being used? Does anybody? Because I walk around there a lot, and I never see anybody using it.
[00:14:48] Presenter: I don't have hard data on that for you. However, in the times that I have visited the park, I've noticed people using it.
[00:14:56] Councilmember 2: Have you? I mean, the most I see is kids using it as...
[00:15:00] Councilmember: playground equipment, not really as fitness equipment. So, you know, I just want us to, if there's a way we can take note of that before we go into other parks and do the same thing. If it's warranted and if it's an asset in the park, great. But if no one's using it, we need to take a look at that. So, if we can find that out, I think it's worth looking at. The other question I had, I saw that you went in front of Parks and Rec with it. And maybe, Evan, you can speak to that. Mayor Pro Tem Trouy, you can speak to that. What's the reaction at Parks and Rec about this, or were you there during that meeting?
[00:15:38] Mayor Pro Tem Trouy: Yeah, all positive. I don't think there was too much resistance on any of the design elements. And we did make a concession to the autism-specific at Freedom Park, isn't that right? And that was the first park we've ever accommodated sort of an autism or sensory neurodiverse play equipment, and we're going to do the same here to some degree, isn't that right?
[00:16:06] Evan (Staff): Yeah, we are incorporating some of those play features in this park design. However, at the June 12th City Council meeting, I've got a staff report coming to hire five park designers for seven different park locations to do a similar process of conducting public engagement, finding out what the community needs, and then upgrading those parks. Freedom Park is one of them, and that's one where the Parks and Recreation Committee had a visitor requesting fencing around the park for her child with autism that has a flight response. So, that fencing will allow her to relax and watch her child play without worrying about them escaping into the parking lot.
[00:16:53] Mayor Pro Tem Trouy: Yeah, and just to the Mayor's question, sorry, I think the vote was unanimous on recommending the design as approved from the Parks and Rec Committee.
[00:17:02] Councilmember: Great. Yes. Okay, wonderful.
[00:17:04] Councilmember: And I did have a comment, please. On the play equipment itself, in terms of deciding which equipment was going to be used, was that based on the community feedback or from the experts that are here today deciding what's popular now? Because it's been a while since I've been on the playground equipment over at Civic Center Park, but I thought there was more of a walkway and like a bridge to the slides, and I don't see that in these drawings. Is that not popular anymore, where the kids can climb up and then they walk on a little bridge and then they go down the slide?
[00:17:47] Evan (Staff): The bridge, I think, that was incorporated is a separate play feature, so it's not connecting the two structures the way that it is currently. But to answer your question, it was a combination of the public feedback, and then we've got Landscape Structures, which is the playground equipment manufacturer that Insight is working with, and that's their recommendation about the latest and greatest that meets the city's needs. So, if you have comments about if you'd like to incorporate something like that, I'd be happy to.
[00:18:23] Councilmember: I just remember, and now I have a one-year-old grandson—well, actually, he's almost two—he just loves to walk and climb up along the bridgeway, and it just seems like it's a fun feature still. But I don't know, it's very subjective.
[00:18:37] Evan (Staff): Great. No, I appreciate the feedback.
[00:18:39] Councilmember: If the tree roots were a problem with the concrete in the past, how do we alleviate that with the new construction, assuming the tree roots are still going to grow?
[00:18:50] Evan (Staff): We're allowing a little more space for the trees to grow. Basically, there's a couple inches buffer that'll be incorporated into the new concrete.
[00:19:03] Councilmember: Great.
[00:19:05] Mayor: Please.
[00:19:06] Councilmember: I wanted to say that it's a great layout. I love the color, and I love that we're even having the discussions about neurodiverse users of the park. Right across the street from the park is CARD, the Center for Autism and Related Disorders, and the kids go and have park days. That's an opportunity for kids—CARD does a play-based behavioral therapy, and I've heard that parents are able to see their kids go up to kids they don't know and ask them, 'Can we share? Can we play?' And so this is an excellent community engagement, where we tend to only think of it in terms of structures and slides and swings. So, I appreciate the extra level of detail of who the users are. Thank you.
[00:19:52] Evan (Staff): Absolutely.
[00:19:56] Mayor: Anything else?
[00:20:00] Councilmember 1: I'm looking at the play equipment. It looks fun.
[00:20:04] Staff Presenter: Call please. Sorry. Um, whoa, a little bit louder than I thought. Um, in the renderings, I'm not seeing shade structures, but that will be incorporated still. I did just receive the renderings of the shade structures after I put together this presentation. Um, however, I'm happy to share them with you.
[00:20:20] Councilmember 1: Perfect. Thank you. Wasn't there an overhead one, or was that just in here, in there?
[00:20:25] Staff Presenter: Aerial view of them, but not a rendering with the play, but we don't have it here.
[00:20:30] Councilmember 1: Thank you.
[00:20:34] Mayor: Is there anything else you need from us?
[00:20:37] Staff Presenter: No. Okay. Thank you so much for your feedback.
[00:20:40] Councilmember 1: Thank you. This is exciting and looks great. Thank you.
[00:20:46] Staff Presenter: Thank you.
[00:20:49] Mayor: Okay. So, next we have Mr. Rodriguez.
[00:20:58] Mr. Rodriguez: Good afternoon, Mayor, members of the City Council. This item before you is a proposal of bringing back an amendment for your approval... recommendations. Sorry. So at the last study session, we were directed to prepare some recommendations for an ordinance amendment. And what is before you is the amendment that we came up with that staff felt would be enforceable. It would create a balance between contractors that are hired by the city, the general public that does the same type of work. It would increase an ease for enforcement, lessening confusion for the public and making the rules more in line with the industry standards that are out there. So, we will ask that you give us the recommendation on if you agree with this, but the ordinance that we propose is 7:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., seven days a week. Government code holidays are not allowed. It would eliminate the holiday schedules that are seasonal for the different times of the year, which created confusion for us. And also these hours were based on what Public Works allows their contractors to do. We felt that lining up with Public Works, where we haven't really had any complaints for the type of work that they're doing, the hours that they operate are reasonable within the industry standard. So having those hours across the board, which we also reached out to the other cities, as we presented in the last report, those are about the hours that they start with, plus or minus half an hour here or there, but that's kind of the baseline that they work. So it would create an ease for enforcement and less confusion for the public out there conducting the work. So, we're here to receive your direction to see if you agree with this or if you have recommendations for us to bring back. Thank you.
[00:23:12] Mayor: Thank you. Let's begin with questions. Any questions? No questions? Questions, please.
[00:23:22] Councilmember 2: In looking through the section on the special provision exceptions on F, mobile noise sounds associated with agricultural operations, provided such operations do not take place between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. on weekdays including Saturday, or anytime on Sunday or federal holiday. Is there any particular reason that it addresses the days, or is it already just kind of the blanket to exclude the weekday or weekends? And follow-up question, what kind of agricultural operations would that include?
[00:23:57] Mr. Rodriguez: I think that's a section that's been in the code for many, many years when we used to have more agriculture, the date farms that we used to have in the city, which I don't think we have any more agricultural operations in our city. So that's just a section that's been in there from many years ago.
[00:24:10] Councilmember 2: Okay. So then we can exclude the specific part that highlights the weekends. And then my other question is, I remember that the last discussion we had in terms of people being able to take advantage of what days off they have available to them and how they could use that day for work. Do all of the other cities, or how many of the other cities, ban work on government holidays?
[00:24:43] Mr. Rodriguez: I think all the cities ban government work on government holidays, including us. But there is, like for example, Rancho Mirage is a little bit more strict. They don't allow it on the weekends, but most of the other cities would be in line with what we're proposing.
[00:24:56] Councilmember 2: If I may, on that note, can you define what is a government code...
[00:25:01] Staff Member: Holiday? It's a government code holiday as what the federal government defines as a holiday.
[00:25:04] Mayor: Okay. Thank you. Still questions? Do you have any other questions?
[00:25:11] Council Member: I have a question. Going back to Councilwoman Quintanilla's question, the way I read the special provisions is that's an earlier part of the code and that it references paragraph H, and that we're talking about landscape maintenance activities as one of the special provisions. Do I understand that correctly?
[00:25:41] Staff Member: Okay. So, most of our discussion is primarily focused on the property maintenance at the moment.
[00:25:49] Council Member: Okay. Just want to make sure. Wait, I didn't understand what you said. Can you repeat the last? It was a little garbled for me.
[00:25:56] Council Member: No, I just wanted to make sure that I was understanding that the landscape maintenance activities are a subsection of the special provisions, if I may.
[00:26:11] Staff Member: And yeah, that section applies to emergency work. So that would be an exemption, and it's defined under that code section of 975 that if it's emergency work for public works, utilities, any type of a natural disaster. So that would exempt those type of activities like tree trimming, so forth.
[00:26:34] Mayor: Thank you. Any other questions?
[00:26:37] Council Member: I mean, this is a little bit subjective maybe. What constitutes an emergency? What's the threshold?
[00:26:41] Staff Member: Power outage, tree blocking the road.
[00:26:44] Council Member: Tree blocking the road. Lost cat? No.
[00:26:47] Staff Member: Wind storms. Um, yeah, just things that would generate an emergency response.
[00:26:56] Council Member: Last question, please. And to clarify, is the exception of not having any work done on the holidays, is that for contractors or does that include every single resident? Are we telling residents that you can't do anything on federal holidays across the board?
[00:27:18] Staff Member: I think I remember that speaks specifically to that, I believe. And I read it a little while ago, so hang in here with me. I'm not finding it yet, but please go ahead.
[00:27:59] Council Member: That was going to be my comment, was to make an exception for homeowners.
[00:28:07] Staff Member: If I may, the way I read this is if you're sweeping, raking, you can do those on government holidays. This applies specifically to noise-originating equipment.
[00:28:20] Council Member: Power equipment.
[00:28:21] Staff Member: Yes. All manual labor is exempt. Like it was brought up at the last meeting, some of our city contractors that may start earlier than those hours, or anybody changing trash bags, raking, doing any type of manual labor, that's completely exempt.
[00:28:37] Council Member: I didn't see anything in here about HOAs. Do—like, kind of going to use the example of STRs—HOA rules kind of supersede city, like the HOA can has some autonomy in setting their own hours. We have the same thing here, or do city rules supersede HOA rules?
[00:28:51] Staff Member: City rules would supersede, and we get that call where they—like right now, they want to start earlier because the heat's coming on. So we're getting those calls that our rules are just too restrictive for them to allow them to prepare their grounds for their residents.
[00:29:11] Council Member: Our current rules—our current rules—and but starting at 7:00 a.m.?
[00:29:14] Staff Member: Well, no. Our current rules are 9:00.
[00:29:17] Council Member: The old schedule?
[00:29:19] Staff Member: Yes.
[00:29:20] Council Member: Okay, current rules. Thank you.
[00:29:25] Mayor: Are there any other questions, comments?
[00:29:29] Council Member: That made me think of another question then. So, you've contacted all the HOAs in our city to let them know of—have we gotten any feedback, or have you, or is that just too arduous of a—
[00:29:38] Staff Member: No, but in the past we have not reached out to them, but we've gotten requests that we should change the rules to be less restrictive, earlier start time. So, that is the request that we've been getting, and they will be happy with.
[00:29:52] Council Member: They will be happy.
[00:29:54] Mayor: I sorry, please go ahead.
[00:29:57] Council Member: Yeah. So, I—
[00:30:00] Council Member: I think I like what you put together, and I would support what you've proposed. And for those who want to start earlier, starting with manual labor, you can still do clippings, rakings, things like that. So, I think we're moving this up two hours to be more accommodating, and in the hot time of season, people could still get started a little earlier, but no loud noises until 7:00. I think I support what you put forward.
[00:30:32] Council Member: So, I may be the only one who didn't know what carillon chimes were. I had to look it up. I think we could probably delete that because I don't believe it's an issue. Now, if we want to talk, you know, we all have wind chimes that exist at our neighbor's house and things like that, but not the carillon.
[00:30:56] Staff: That is again a section that was before my time. And I'll be honest with you, in the 30 years that I've been doing code enforcement, I don't recall a complaint for chimes.
[00:31:07] Council Member: Okay, I think we're safe deleting that. And I did look up what carillon chimes actually are, and there's, you know, you can count the number of them that exist throughout the world. I mean, it's not that this is a prevalent thing. So, the one we've got in the park, I think we're safe in deleting that, because a carillon is a specific type of a musical instrument, I learned today. So, I think we'd be safe deleting that.
[00:31:43] Council Member: Oh, please go ahead. Yeah, I second Joe's sentiment. I like what you put together. It's uniform, it's predictable, easy for you to enforce, makes some concessions by moving it back two hours. So, I'm in support of it.
[00:31:58] Council Member: Good. I still have an issue with nothing getting done on those holidays. I think one of the discussion points last time was maybe no Sundays, and then we mentioned that maybe for folks, we can't dictate if that happens to be a day that you get off, that you shouldn't be able to conduct work on your own property. I think that we should adhere maybe to the same hours. I think that we could say none of the city employees, no public works, or none of the city contractors, so that we can mitigate some of that. But if that's your one day off, if it's a bonus day off when you've been meaning to get to that project on the to-do list, I think that people may already be doing it on the holidays.
[00:32:44] Staff: And if homeowners are doing that on holidays, which they probably are, we're really not hearing about it. We're not getting any calls. It's more of the commercial businesses that we're hearing more about.
[00:32:56] Council Member: So, can we then add something? Because in looking at this, and perhaps that's what the Mayor was looking for, it says that the purpose is to have uniform timeframes and have it aligned, but it doesn't specifically state, other than aligning with public contracts and industry standards, it doesn't specifically say what applies to private residents versus commercial activities.
[00:33:26] Staff: So, exempting residential properties for homeowners is what I'm hearing you would like to add. Okay.
[00:33:33] Council Member: Or maybe we just add it to the federal holiday that homeowners are exempt, because otherwise maybe they're going to start at 6:00 or 5:00 a.m. with their leaf blower.
[00:33:47] Council Member: Yeah, and I agree with Council Member Betto that it's the fact that you can start with the less noisy activities early in the day. Absolutely. It still lets you get your work done at whatever time is conducive, or with daylight savings if you want to get things done later, as long as it's not noisy. I think that makes perfect sense. But again, if we can say on your own property, whatever you would like, as long as you conform, if it's your day off, it's your day off. Just stay within the times.
[00:34:17] Council Member: Okay. Any comments? Is there support? I would support for the federal holiday what we just said for the homeowners, but we need one more person, or it's not really a vote. We're giving direction. So, I don't know if that is the direction that the rest of the Council is supporting.
[00:34:38] Staff: What would be the harm if we just say remove the government holiday out of that? Then you're allowing companies to do work in commercial zones. It appears to me that that would be less...
[00:35:01] Councilmember: ...burdensome than them working on government holidays in residential zones. Therefore, would it matter if we just did residential zones and we can say, you know, just take out the government holidays altogether and allow the and just set time limits because if somebody if a company is doing maintenance in a commercial zone, it would be less disruptive to the residential zones than if they were working or residents were working in their own neighborhoods with power tools. That's my only thought is, you know, if we're going to do it, try and keep it clean as possible.
[00:35:45] Councilmember: That confused me. Yeah. Well, so but it sounds from Pedro's experience over 30 years that there haven't been many complaints from one resident to another regarding work by residents on holiday. So I don't think we need to touch it because it would be solving a problem that doesn't exist.
[00:36:03] Staff: Residents have called when there's the neighbor's gardener there on holiday. So that would be a complaint. Now if we want to exempt homeowner activity, I could put it under exemption. So this would exempt homeowner activity for doing yard work on their own properties from the entire chapter. So that means they would still be allowed to work on government code holidays and we can dictate that they would have to follow these hours between these hours.
[00:36:28] Councilmember: I think that helps address the fact that not everybody observes the same holidays and what may be a holiday for me and my traditions may not be one for another or a day that I believe would be a high holiday may not be one that's even on the list. So I think in terms of equity, I think that if it's a day that you want to work, it's a day that you can work. I think that we should have an exemption for residential properties.
[00:36:55] Councilmember: Okay. I'm okay with that. Everybody good with this? Does that sound unreasonable? Okay, great.
[00:37:03] Staff: We'll prepare a report back and bring it back before you. Thank you so much.
[00:37:07] Councilmember: Thank you.
[00:37:15] Staff: Madame Mayor, that does conclude the agenda items and the closed session is scheduled for 3:30.
[00:37:22] Mayor: Thank you very much. So, we'll meet back at 3:30. Thank you, everyone.