Palm Springs in 2024: Expect work on aging facilities, efforts to address homeless crisis to be priorities at City Hall

Looking to continue addressing everything from the homeless crisis to aging major city facilities, expect the theme of 2024 to be “focus” at Palm Springs City Hall.

Recent headlines regarding the location of the “Forever Marilyn” statue, a request for millions more in funds to refurbish the Plaza Theatre, and even new pickleball courts may be hot topics on social media, but those may prove minor when considering what city officials are up against in the coming years.

The list of issues city officials, staff, and elected leaders need to tackle is almost too big to fathom. In the very near future, Palm Springs International Airport and the main library off Sunrise Way will need major expansions, as will the convention center. A new downtown fire station is also needed, as are improvements to most city parks. Planning is currently underway for all of it.

As if those work items weren’t enough, in February the city expects to open the doors to some portions of a facility — called a “navigation center” — designed to assist the homeless population. When fully open, the facility off McCarthy Road will have 80 units of modular housing, dozens more temporary beds, and offer “wraparound services” ranging from job counseling to family reunification.

City Manager Scott Stiles said recently he plans to have staff “laser-focused” on opening the navigation center, but is also anticipating the days and weeks that will follow that moment.

“When that’s open, it will open up a lot of opportunity for others who want to assist us in helping the homeless population,” Stiles said, pointing to partnerships with organizations such as the Palm Springs Animal Shelter, which plans to offer services for the pets of those receiving assistance at the navigation center.

“There are a lot of people who want to do a lot of things once we get that open,” he added. “We think it will lead to some really good partnerships.”

The opening of the navigation center will no doubt be a major moment — directly addressing an issue residents feel is the city’s most urgent. But city staff will have little time to celebrate. Stiles said they will be too busy dealing with the other large infrastructure needs to shift their attention for too long.

Big is an understatement when it comes to the impact a major hotel project is expected to have when it opens at a key intersection downtown in 2024. The Thompson Hotel, located at North Palm Canyon Drive and East Alejo Road and taking up most of a city block, expects to open its doors this year, ending more than a decade of frustration as the project sat unfinished.

Other unfinished projects, drawing similar ire from the community, may also see progress in 2024, Stiles said. Grading permits are being prepared for the Dream Hotel near the convention center, and a groundbreaking could happen “shortly,” he said. The developer of the planned Orchid Tree Hotel off South Belardo Road downtown is still actively working with the city in hopes of breaking ground in the coming year.

Also expected to open in 2024 are a pair of affordable housing projects — the Monarch Apartments in the northern portion of the city and the Vista Sunrise II apartments near the DAP Health campus — the first new projects of their type in more than a decade. Work will continue on a similar project, Aloe Palm Canyon, which broke ground earlier this year.

“We’re excited and energized about this coming year,” Stiles said. There are so many things in motion. …Cities are large, living, breathing organisms. I look at the city in a larger way and try not to get redirected. We need to stay focused on the big, impactful issues.”

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