Palm Desert Municipal Code Ch. 27.04 Purpose

The purpose of this Title is to establish minimum requirements for grading, excavating and filling of land, to provide for the issuance of permits and for the enforcement of the requirements. These provisions are supplementary and additional to the subdivision and zoning regulations of this code and shall be read and construed as an integral part of the regulations and the land development patterns and controls established thereby. It is the intent of the city council to protect life and property; promote the general welfare; enhance and improve the physical environment of the community; and preserve, subject to economic feasibility, the natural scenic character of the city. In administering these provisions, the following goals should be respected:

A. Insuring that future development of lands, particularly in the hilly areas of the city, occurs in the manner most compatible with surrounding areas and so as to have the least adverse effect upon other persons or lands, or upon the general public;

B. Insuring that soil will not be stripped and removed from lands in the more scenic parts of the city, leaving the same barren, unsightly, unproductive, and subject to erosion and the hazards of the subsidence and faulty drainage;

C. Encouraging the planning design and development of building sites in such fashion as to provide the maximum in safety with human enjoyment, while adapting development to and taking advantage of the best use of the natural terrain;

D. Encouraging and directing special attention toward the retaining, insofar as practical, of the natural planting, the maximum number of existing trees, and the natural character of the hillside area.

(Ord. 126 § 1, 1976, Exhibit A § 27.1-1; Ord. 294, 1982)