The iconic downtown Oasis Commercial Building is a Palm Springs Class 1-designated historic property. Sort of.

In a move that local preservationist groups called unprecedented, the City Council voted 4-1 on Wednesday to designate as historic parts — but not all — of the 1953 E. Stewart Williams-designed Oasis building, in the heart of downtown at Tahquitz Canyon Way and Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs.

Councilwoman Ginny Foat dissented, calling for the entire building to be a Class 1 historic site.

Business-friendly

The vote subjects design changes to the Oasis' second floor, its rear staircase, front columns, and south- and west-facing display cases to Historic Site Preservation Board review. But it allows for changes to the building's first-floor façade to proceed without HSPB review.

The first floor presently houses a Starbucks Coffee and Okura restaurant, which have added fenced-in patio areas.

Property co-owner Steve Lyle welcomed the council's “hybrid” designation for the Oasis, saying it would allow swift design changes to help attract future tenants.

“When you have the opportunity you need to have a business-friendly response from the city.”

“I just don't think it's prudent for us to throw obstacles up in the way of what could happen (for) any new tenant that may want to come to this building,” Mayor Pro Tem Chris Mills said before voting.

However, after the vote HSPB Chair John Gilmer said the board doesn't look to stand in the way of property owners and developers.

Rather, it seeks to help create the design changes the owners need while keeping the best historical and architectural style or the city, he said

That cooperation could better serve Palm Springs businesses in the long run, creating more attractive buildings that bring in more customers, Gilmer and other preservationists argued. “We're trying to do outreach” to get that point across, Gilmer said

‘Terrible precedent'

Advocates for Palm Springs preservation expressed deep disappointment with the vote.

Palm Springs Preservation Foundation President Ron Marshall called it “a terrible precedent” that could create a slippery slope toward portioning parts of historic Palm Springs buildings.

“It's like you're telling the homecoming queen she's only the homecoming queen from the waist up,” Marshall said Tuesday, of designating only Oasis' second story and not the whole building. “It's a crazy thing. The policy doesn't fit it.”

After the meeting Wednesday, Palm Springs Director of Planning Services Craig Ewing said the city has similar partial historic designations at the Palm Springs International Airport, as well for the Lloyd Wright-designed Oasis Hotel Tower next door to the Oasis building.

The tower, by itself, is a Class 1 site, Ewing said.

Earlier, during the meeting, Ewing told the council that the hybrid policy “doesn't fit into anything in the (city's) ordinance right now.”

He added that it “best fits” as a lesser Class 2 designation, which recognizes certain Palm Springs buildings as historic but does not require HSPB review.

Nonetheless, the council approved the partial Class 1 designation for Oasis.

Councilman Rick Hutcheson said the city ordinance allowed for a certain amount of interpretation.