Palm Springs is known for sunshine, palm trees, and mid-century architecture. But it should also be known for something else: gated communities.
I was raised in a small industrial town south of Pittsburgh. No gated communities there. The house I grew up in was a modest one-story brick place on a street of similar homes. Ours was a cozy little neighborhood, backed by wooded hills, where kids and dogs free-ranged and the only gate in sight belonged to Mrs. Tremoni, who kept several animals in her spectacularly unkempt yard.
There Mrs. Tremoni's gate was the exception. Here in the Palm Springs area, the gate is the rule.
The basic formula was simple: ring a stretch of sand with a wall, add a guarded entrance, and build inward—winding roads, desert landscaping, and homes precisely spaced. Over time, though, the amenities escalated. The modest clubhouse gave way to "community centers" with restaurants, pools, tennis courts, and spas—modernist showpieces of glass and steel meant to impress as much as serve.
And the arms race continues. The latest entrant is Cotino, a Disney-backed development in nearby Rancho Mirage. Instead of a golf course, its centerpiece is a 24-acre lagoon—beach-lined, ultra-purified and preternaturally blue. Around it rise large designer homes of stone, glass, and concrete, set precisely against the mountain backdrop.
Prices start in the low millions and climb well beyond. A lagoon club membership will set you back another $10K or so, plus annual dues.
Enter through the beautifully landscaped gate—
—and leave your wallet at the door.
