Planning director approves new Idyllwild hotel

Monday, Jan. 10, John Hildebrand, director of the Riverside County Planning Department, approved plans for constructing a new luxury inn in Idyllwild.

The inn will be on the vacant property on North Circle Drive adjacent to La Casita. The plan proposes construction of a resort hotel with 12 rooms, a swimming pool and a small innkeeper’s residence.

Brad and Jacki Rechtfertig submitted the plans to build a new lodging in Idyllwild, to be called The Hotel Idyllwild. The next steps will be seeking building permits. They expect to begin construction in 2023 with completion and opening of the inn in 2024.

The Rechtfertigs built and eventually sold The Grand Idyllwild Lodge, “[The Inn] is not the exact same thing, but it is similar,” Brad said at the director’s hearing. And of course, they also intend to build The Hotel Idyllwild themselves.

“Of course, we are designing, building and operating this project from start to finish, just like the lodge,” Brad wrote in an email to the Town Crier.

At the hearing, Brett Dawson, county project planner, described the proposed plan and the mitigated negative declaration. He reported he had received 24 comments in favor of and eight opposed to the proposal.

Water supply and sewage were the concerns of several people opposed to a new hotel. At the hearing, no one opposed it, but one person, Leona Rice, asked about how it might affect water. “Idyllwild sustains drought conditions, will [the project] be a negative?” she asked.

Monday, Jan. 10, John Hildebrand, director of the Riverside County Planning Department, approved plans for constructing a new luxury inn in Idyllwild.

The inn will be on the vacant property on North Circle Drive adjacent to La Casita. The plan proposes construction of a resort hotel with 12 rooms, a swimming pool and a small innkeeper’s residence.

Brad and Jacki Rechtfertig submitted the plans to build a new lodging in Idyllwild, to be called The Hotel Idyllwild. The next steps will be seeking building permits. They expect to begin construction in 2023 with completion and opening of the inn in 2024.

The Rechtfertigs built and eventually sold The Grand Idyllwild Lodge, “[The Inn] is not the exact same thing, but it is similar,” Brad said at the director’s hearing. And of course, they also intend to build The Hotel Idyllwild themselves.

“Of course, we are designing, building and operating this project from start to finish, just like the lodge,” Brad wrote in an email to the Town Crier.

At the hearing, Brett Dawson, county project planner, described the proposed plan and the mitigated negative declaration. He reported he had received 24 comments in favor of and eight opposed to the proposal.

Water supply and sewage were the concerns of several people opposed to a new hotel. At the hearing, no one opposed it, but one person, Leona Rice, asked about how it might affect water. “Idyllwild sustains drought conditions, will [the project] be a negative?” she asked.