County approves 33-room, restaurant, spa expansion of Landers motel
At yesterday’s meeting, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors held a public hearing regarding a proposed motel expansion in the Morongo Basin. The Lonely Dove Motel is currently an eight-room structure located at 1473 Wamego Trail in Landers, east of Old Woman Springs Road.
County Planning Chief Paul Gonzales and Planning Manager Paul Toomey presented the case, explaining that Rod Rigole filed the application for a conditional use permit and a zoning amendment in 2022. The proposed CUP would allow an expansion to include 33 Quonset hut-style rooms and one renovated caretaker residence, for a total of 42 units on the two-parcel, ten-acre property. The permit would also allow construction of a pool, spa facilities, a miniature golf course, two new full-service restaurants, and one Futuro Home, which is a futuristic prefabricated structure shaped like a flying saucer.
Regarding the zoning amendment, Gonzales explained that the project site is in the Rural Living Land Use category and in both the Homestead Valley Special Development Commercial and Rural Living zoning districts.
“The land use district map shows the project site encompassing both zones, creating a situation where we have two different types of zoning…
The zoning amendment allows the extension of the special development commercial zone designation on the expansion site to the east, which allows for proposed use to be consistent with the zoning map.”
On June 4, the County Planning Commission held a public hearing on the project; no comments were received, and the Planning Commission approved the application unanimously. Gonzales explained that the project is consistent with the county’s development code standards, and would provide approximately 40 new jobs for residents while supporting the local tourism industry. Comments were submitted by the California Water Board concerning potential groundwater contamination, and by the Highway Patrol regarding construction safety; to date, the county has not received any other comments from residents regarding the application.
The Board of Supervisors approved the application unanimously. Chair Dawn Rowe noted that it would be ideal for unincorporated residents to receive project updates specific to the Morongo Basin, rather than the entire San Bernardino County.
“We have a lot of desert residents who are interested in future development and the problems that rural living, as we’ve discussed in previous projects, has created with that catch-all…We have Landers, Joshua Tree, Wonder Valley, the North Desert, the South Desert…Our residents sign up in the Morongo Basin, but they’re getting Needles and Newberry Springs. It’d be great to see if we could implement some technology moving forward for desert notifications for projects like this.”
County Board of Supervisors
Col. Paul Cook (Ret.)
Curt Hagman
Dawn Rowe
Jesse Armendarez
