Proposed surf park in California desert is rejected by La Quinta City Council
A group trying to build a surf park in the Mojave Desert near Palm Springs is not allowed to open as the La Quinta City Council rejects the proposal.
Nadine Simeon, a California native from the San Diego area who first wanted to bring surfers and surfers to the desert to celebrate La Quinta’s history, told the City Council last week that the proposed park is needed to preserve the region’s identity.
“This is a project of the community in the community,” Simeon said. “La Quinta needs to celebrate its history, and this is a great way to do it.”
La Quinta is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Palm Springs in the sparsely populated La Palma Hills.
It is one of a string of rural coastal communities on the East Coast that have sought a surf park in the desert, but have been turned down by La Quinta’s City Council.
As of now, the La Quinta group only has about 75 signatures on its online petition to appeal to the City Council, and it is unlikely that either the San Diego or Los Angels municipalities would want to step into the fray. However, the group hopes to gain more support when officials on the San Diego Board of Commissioners’ Planning and Zoning Committee and on the San Diego City Council are appointed by La Quinta’s City Council to hear public comments on the application.
The proposed surf park would have about 1,800 feet of public beachfront along a sandy stretch of ocean, and would be located just outside La Quinta, on the east side of Pacific Highway in the Pismo Beach area.
The San Diego City Council must first vote on the surf park, and a majority vote is needed for approval. It would be another first for La Quinta, which has had a long history of having a beach on the East Coast (including one on the west side of Pacific Highway).
In July of last year, the San Diego Board of Commissioners approved