Proposed surf park in California desert is rejected by La Quinta City Council
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — La Quinta, Calif.’s most populated city, is proposing to build a high-end surf hotel with a beachfront fronting a vast expanse of dry land.
The plan called for building a hotel, two oceanfront condos, an 18-hole golf course and a public beach with access to the Santa Ana River.
The project was rejected by the city’s planning commission on Monday, and the city council is expected to make its final decision at the close of a three-day meeting.
The issue is expected to be whether the project meets the standards of the city’s planning and development code.
La Quinta is home to about 12,000 people and is the county seat of Imperial County.
The hotel would have been on the former Santa Ana Army Airfield, according to a report written by an engineering firm hired by the city.
“The proposed project is unique in that there will be a high-end hotel, a golf course, and two oceanfront condominiums, all on a large expanse of land that is essentially inaccessible to the general public,” the report, commissioned by La Quinta, said.
The report, which analyzed what would happen if the project “went forward,” said an eight-story hotel would be the most expensive in the county but that the area had “no hotel hotels in the area, which is the primary reason the project was rejected.”
The area being considered for the project is roughly half the size of the entire city of La Quinta, according to the city.
The report said that with a projected average temperature of about 50 degrees, the area wouldn’t qualify as the ideal spot for a building as large as the proposed hotel.
La Quinta City
