Cathedral City Mulls City Entryway Monuments

Entryway Monuments Would Provide Recognizable Icon of City

CATHEDRAL CITY — This ever-growing community is looking to install entryway monuments as an element of its branding campaign. The monuments would also help identify the boundaries of the city and provide visitors with their first messaging on what the city is about. The biggest questions now are how to pay for it and how big should it be?

The City Council will meet in Study Session today, Wednesday, March 26, to review size and cost options for the agreed upon “Mountain Cathedrals” entryway sculpture monument replicas. The Study Session portion of the meeting begins at 3 p.m.

One of the action items adopted under the city’s five-year strategic plan was to develop an entryway, medians and lighting master plan to provide appealing gateways to the city.

At the Sept. 24, 2024, City Council Study Session meeting, staff presented an overview of the report submitted by the City Entryway Monument Subcommittee of the Public Arts Commission (PAC) (Commissioners Craig Liebelt and former Commissioner Tom Rudolph).

The report included the overall PAC recommendations on the recommended monument item as well. This effort was initiated by, then-Mayor Pro Tem Ross. Mayor Pro Tem had approached PAC with the idea of creating a standardized entryway monument throughout the city in lieu of many of the art pieces that exist at the city gateways today.

“The idea of standardizing the city’s entryway monuments would provide a recognizable icon of the city, and without words, would provide the understanding that you were entering Cathedral City ” according to John A. Corella, Director of Public Works.

At the study session, staff made a presentation showing photos of each current entryway art piece location. After reviewing the information, staff presented and reviewed the PAC-recommended alternatives, of which the Council accepted the PAC recommendation to use the “Mountain Cathedrals” sculpture located on Date Palm Drive south of Vista Chino as the basis for the standardized monument.

The Council agreed that the original “Mountain Cathedrals” may be limited for use at other locations due to its large size and its high cost of reproduction. To support this discussion, staff had solicited initial cost estimates from fabricators for
reproducing various scale sizes of the monument ¼ (25%), ½ (50%) and ¾ (75%) scales.

Estimated costs for these scaled down versions are as follows:

• ¼ (25%) size = +/- $60,000 to $77,000.
• ½ (50%) size = +/- $74,000 to $148,000.
• ¾ (75%) size = +/- $80,000 to $150,000 (staff estimated).
• Full (100%) size = +/- $109,000 to $251,000.

The Council also discussed various revenue sources, such as using Council District Funds, incremental funding placed within each fiscal year’s budget, or even adding monuments to upcoming roadway improvement projects where applicable. Additionally, the cost to relocate the existing entryway sculptures would have to be considered in the costs. Lastly, it was mentioned that staff should determine the city’s ability to copy and/or reduce the size of the original sculpture, before completing the decision to use the “Mountain Cathedrals” as the city’s entryway monument template.

The question of “how large are the reduced size sculptures?” will be presented at this meeting to the City Council with mockups placed in the foyer of the Council Chambers. The mockups will reflect the three various scales of the original sculpture that were discussed in
the September Study Session meeting. The ¼ (25%), ½ (50%), and ¾ (75%) scale versions of the original, with the respective proportioned base are on display.

With the size of the monuments question addressed, staff is looking for direction on how the City Council wants to proceed with this entryway program and how to pay for it.

The city has several entryway points (gateways) that may or may not already have a sculpture or monument installed. Below is a list of the city’s true gateways from adjacent cities:

• East Palm Canyon Drive:
o West entry: west of Cree Road from Palm Springs (site under design and will
be available).
o East entry: west of Sungate Way from Rancho Mirage (site available).
• Gerald Ford Drive:
o East entry: west of Plumley Road from Rancho Mirage (site needs to be
constructed).
• Dinah Shore Drive:
o West entry: west of Shifting Sands Trail from Palm Springs (site occupied).
o East entry: west of Plumley Road from Rancho Mirage (several locations
available).
• Ramon Road:
o West entry: at Landau Blvd from Palm Springs (site available).
o East entry: at Da Vall Drive from Rancho Mirage (site occupied).
• Vista Chino:
o West entry: east of Whitewater River Channel (site needs to be constructed).
• Varner Road:
o West entry: east of Palm Drive (site needs to be constructed).
o North entry: at Mountain View (site needs to be constructed).
o East entry: at Bob Hope Drive (site needs to be constructed).

There are 11 true entry locations identified above. (This does not preclude the option to place monuments at
intermediate locations along our roadways within the city).

Money for the monuments will need to be determined. Currently the FY 2025-26 and 2026-27 budget review process in underway. As part of this process there may be options to provide funding for entryway monuments incrementally over several years through:

• Budgeted general funds.
• Council district funds.
• A capital improvement project(s) that will be improving a roadway within a gateway area.
• Art and/or other grant funding.
• A combination of the above.

Staff is requesting City Council review the size and cost options for the agreed upon “Mountain Cathedrals” entryway sculpture monument replicas, discuss sizes particular to locations, funding for monument placements, and direction on the next steps they would like to see.

There is currently no budget allocated for this project. If the City Council would like to proceed with monument installations, locations will need to be identified so that staff can determine the estimated costs. If directed and funding identified, there is opportunity for one or more entryway monument projects be included in the upcoming FY 2025-26 and/or 2026-27 biennial budgets.