Palm Springs to sue Robolight’s owner

The City of Palm Springs is filing a civil court action against the Robolights property, asking that the owner remove two unsafe and dangerous structures from the residential property in the Movie Colony East neighborhood, according to a release on Thursday.

KESQ and CBS Local 2 recently reported on how the city had issued the owner, Kenny Irwin, $5,500 in citations for safety violations on the property.

“The City of Palm Springs is not seeking the closure of Robolights,” said City Attorney Douglas Holland. “However, the City believes the owner has an obligation to comply with our life/safety, building, fire and zoning code requirements applicable to all single-family residential properties in Palm Springs and is obligated to correct any violations.”

Due to a recent fire on the property, a warrant was issued by the Superior Court, which led to an inspection by the City’s Building Official and a third party inspector that uncovered a total of ten life/safety, building and fire code violations, city officials said.

According to the release, the city provided the owner, Kenny Irwin, 30 days to prepare and submit a compliance performance schedule with the various code requirements. Although some issues were corrected, other life/safety violations remain.

“As we have seen with the tragic Oakland warehouse fire that killed 36 people, cities have a responsibility to ensure life/safety violations are corrected, particularly in a case like Robolights where the public is visiting the property regularly,” said Holland. “Due to the lack of compliance, in this situation we find it necessary to ask a judge to resolve the ongoing [dispute].”

KESQ and CBS Local 2 will continue to follow the battle that’s been brewing in Palm Springs as court proceedings continue.