Palm Springs is the latest city to embrace environmentally conscious design, as 300 acres of what was originally slated for a golf course will instead become an ecologically-oriented planned community. Miralon, a 1,150-unit development in Coachella Valley with 75 acres of olive groves, will join agricultural neighborhoods across the country when it opens this fall.
Miralon, despite its ambitious name, wasn’t originally pitched as a holistic district. Before the 2008 recession, developer SunCal had begun work on an “Avalon” neighborhood on the same plot, even going so far as to build out a 75-acre, 18-hole golf course. After the market crash, the land was left untended for a decade, and the harsh desert winds destroyed the course.
Enter national developer Freehold Communities, which unveiled plans for Miralon on the same plot early last year. Banking on the idea that prospective buyers were more interested in living near open space rather than a golf course specifically, Freehold has planted 70 acres of olive trees on what used to be the course, as well as smaller groves in the teeing areas. Besides being drought and pest resistant (olives need to be cured before they’re edible), the olive trees are expected to produce up to 15,000 gallons of oil every year, to be harvested and pressed on site by the Temecula Olive Oil Company.
Other than the groves, Miralon will convert 6.5 miles of roads originally designated for golf carts into hiking and jogging trails, and all of the 1,150 buildings will come equipped with solar panels.
The Modernist-inspired residences will be a mix of single-family homes, condos, and townhouses, and will all adhere to design guidelines drawn up by Robert Hidey Architects. Under Robert Hidey’s framework, all buildings will need to adhere to a shared material palette, height restrictions, plant selections and a plan for arranging homes to keep the neighborhood from looking monotonous.
Robert Hidey will also be designing the community’s central clubhouse, and C2 Collaborative Landscape Architecture will handle the landscaping and olive grove installation.
Miralon seems to be hopping on a $134 billion worldwide trend of planned wellness communities, as well as the trend towards agricultural communities that blend residences with farm-to-table dining.
