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Palm Desert unveils three‑tier median plan, proposes pilot medians and phased $35M buildout
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Summary
Community Services Manager Sean Muir proposed a three‑tier median landscape master plan with pilot medians, special‑district treatments for El Paseo and Baja Park, and a phased rollout using maintenance budgets and capital funding; full implementation estimated at about $35 million.
Sean Muir, Community Services Manager, presented an update to the City Council on March 12 on Palm Desert’s median landscape master plan and proposed demonstration medians. Muir said the plan organizes medians into three tiers — tier 1 (high density planting and features), tier 2 (medium), and tier 3 (sparser plantings where visibility and speed are greater concerns) — and designates special districts for unique treatments such as El Paseo and Baja Park.
"We find that they do both have the same textures and stone materials, earth tones," Muir said of proposed gabion columns and wayfinding elements, and explained that lighting and monument signage would be coordinated to improve visibility.
Staff recommended constructing three pilot demonstration medians (one per tier) so the council and public can see built examples before wider rollout. Muir provided pilot estimates: the tier 1 site near Bristol Farms on Country Club is about $262,494; the tier 2 demonstration in front of Desert Willow is in the mid‑hundreds of thousands (staff clarified the presentation contained a slide misprint and will provide a detailed square‑foot cost breakdown); and a tier 3 project at Via Cinta is approximately $44,000. Muir said completing the full plan across the city today would cost roughly $35,000,000, but staff proposes a phased approach using existing maintenance contracts, annual median improvement allocations (roughly $500,000/year), and capital project funding as available.
Muir also described Baja Park as a revitalization project: many plantings are more than 20 years old and need refreshing, signage updates and a new shade structure over a bus stop. He said construction for Baja Park is estimated at about $1.8 million (with contingency) and staff plans to reallocate Country Club improvement funds to enable construction this fiscal year.
Council members asked for more detailed cost breakdowns that separate irrigation and plant‑material costs and confirmed staff will return with clarified numbers and construction documents before the pilot installations.
