New rules, new money: Pioneertown decides what comes next

PIONEERTOWN, Calif. (KESQ) David Corso wants to be clear about one thing, he says he is not a developer.

"I'm a marketing executive, and I have a passion for Pioneertown," Corso told News Channel 3 inside the Pioneertown Soundstage, the 1940s-era movie building his company owns on Mane Street and the subject of its pending county permit.

San Bernardino County is drafting new building rules for Pioneertown's historic Mane Street, a district added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2020.

The draft Pioneertown Special Development District would cap buildings at 28 feet, limit any single building to 7,000 square feet, and keep the roads unpaved.

The county expects it to reach the Planning Commission this fall and the Board of Supervisors in winter, and says those dates could change.

Two projects are moving through county review ahead of those rules.

The Pioneertown Motel on Curtis Road has applied to add 47 rooms to its existing 19, along with a day spa, restaurant, outdoor pool, horseback riding and a guest-only event venue.

And Corso's company, Pioneertown Land Company, is seeking a conditional use permit to renovate the Soundstage for live music programming and add an outdoor dining pavilion.

State environmental filings show no final county decision on either.

Corso, who has produced brand activations at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival for 25 years, said the Soundstage sits dark most of the year.

"Tourists walk up and down the street, and when we open the doors, they're like, 'Oh my God, what is this?'" he said. "We want to create an attraction here for people to come inside, enjoy it, take their photos, have fun with their families."

He said the goal is maintenance, not transformation.

"It's really not development," Corso said. "It's literally trying to figure out how does Pioneertown have a revenue stream so that it sustains on its own  to pay the taxes, to pay the fire insurance, to pay the maintenance on the structures and the buildings."

Corso says roughly 300,000 visitors come through Pioneertown. He explained the town has no public restrooms and no county trash service, and erosion runs down the middle of the dirt street where visitors walk. He said landowners are asking the county to "chip in" as part of the new rules.

On the fear that outside money will commercialize the town, Corso said he agrees with the skeptics  up to a point.

"Many locals fear that Pioneertown is going to be commercialized, and I agree that it should not be commercialized," he said. "It should be executed through the lens of Pioneertown."

Not everyone is reassured. Sonya Fox, a resident of 18 years, worries about what the crowds will bring.

"We like that we were getting more revenue and people coming up it gives our store business, and people jobs and opportunities," Fox said. "But to have it just inundated with so many people, how will that help? I'm not really sure."

Cody Kennedy, who manages the Mane Street properties for Pioneertown Land Company and lives in the first building constructed in town, said fears of a nightclub or a strip mall misunderstand how the county works.

"Rumors start pretty easily," Kennedy said. "If there is a nightclub, it's got to get approved through the county, and there's a process… the neighbors get notified. It's not like tomorrow they can come open up and turn it into a nightclub."

At the Pioneertown General Store, the assistant manager of five and a half years remembers a different problem.

"When I first started here, it was like quite literally a ghost town," she said. "But even on weekends and even weekdays, it's been way more people coming up. I've met people from all over the world here."

That last part is easy to verify on Mane Street. On the afternoon News Channel 3 visited, one of the tourists was a man named Adi, from a village in Yorkshire, England, who said he drives through the desert every year on his way to San Diego Comic-Con and stays a night in Pioneertown and who, for Marvel, designed Iron Man's red-and-gold Mark III armor.

"I'm originally from Bosnia, and we watched a lot of Western movies," he said. "So to me, it was kind of like, oh, wow, I'm on a set of one of those."

The county's draft rules are open for public comment with Associate Planner Vivian Nguyen at Vivian.Nguyen@lus.sbcounty.gov.