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Palm Desert breaks ground on San Pablo revitalization project

The city of Palm Desert moved forward with a new downtown area Wednesday morning breaking ground on a reimagined stretch of San Pablo Avenue. The city specifically wants to turn it into a key artery in a revitalized city center where walking, biking, and fun are the focus.

“If you ask somebody where’s downtown Palm Desert, you might get ten different answers from ten different people. After this project, you will know the answer to that,” Councilman Sabby Jonathan said.

Some changes the city will be putting in include new shade trees and landscaping, wider sidewalks, pocket parks, enhanced bike lanes. For drivers, they will eventually see a new roundabout at San Pablo and San Gorgonio Way and a “road diet” that will narrow the wide, four-lane road to one lane in each direction. That’s raising some concerns over parking and traffic, but area residents say they’re not worried.

“I don’t think parking is going to be a problem. There’s a lot of streets to park on. There are a few parking lots down that way,” Pamela Schmolke, a Palm Desert resident, said.

“You have enough area to drive around and find parking if that’s the case,” Janelle Spain, a Palm Desert resident, said.

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For local businesses like El Rodeo Cafe, it means more opportunities for patio seating.

“We’ll get more tables, more people to serve and a lot of people like sitting outside so that will help too,” Alma Pedraza, a waitress at the cafe, said.

It’s a plan several years in the making and will cost around $9.6 million through capital bonds and other city tax funds.

While one focus is to bring more foot traffic to businesses along the street, other features are the roundabouts including one at the intersection of San Gorgonio and San Pablo, all meant to enhance safety.

“So with the traffic improvements we plan on doing, it should slow down vehicle traffic and provide better space and safer space for bicycles and pedestrians,” Eric Ceja, a planner with the city of Palm Desert, said.

For Pedraza, she acknowledges access to the cafe would be affected by construction but feels the benefits outweigh short-term concerns.

“It would be a little hard to adjust at first, but we can’t wait,” she said.

These elements were demonstrated back in May of 2016 with vision San Pablo which gave locals an idea of how it would all work. The city says its a way to enhance the connection between El Paseo, Palm Desert Civic Center, and College of the Desert.

City officials say construction would be in two phases, with the first phase from Highway 111 to Fred Waring Drive to begin in June. Phase two is expected to begin next summer from Fred Waring Drive to Magnesia Falls. One lane in each direction will be available for commuters during the construction.

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