RoboLights – the, well, ummm, let’s just call it a unique Palm Springs Holiday light display – is due to back up and running in November, but the city is proposing new and costly requirements to the popular desert Christmas attraction.
The city’s proposed requirements would include shuttling visitors to RoboLights in from Ruth Hardy Park – which could cost RoboLights $100,000, according to KESQ.
An attorney representing RoboLights creator Kenny Irwin suggested that those taking the shuttle be charged $5 per person to help with costs, with any profits being donated t the Desert Aids Project. And while that seems like a reasonable compromise, city leaders are not having it.
“We’re never going to be okay with you collecting money for this event because that now makes it a commercial enterprise in a residential neighborhood,” Palm Springs Mayor Protem J.R. Roberts said during a meeting with residents.
RoboLights was sued by the city, over and inflatable Santa and Godzilla, in 2017 – with the City Attorney claiming it had the potential to be as dangerous as a tragic Oakland warehouse fire that killed 36 people. The lawsuit was settled with Irwin agreeing to only open the RoboLights from 4 to 10 pm, to implement a litter control program and pay for a traffic control program.
“This has been in and out of the courts since its inception and it will not move forward unless they can come to terms with what the city is requesting,” Roberts said Wednesday night.
Discussions are ongoing and the next meeting is scheduled for November 14. RoboLights is scheduled to open on November 21 and you might want to plan on seeing it as early in the season as possible, as the city sure seems determined to kill it.
