Salton City is a census-designated place on the western shore of the Salton Sea in Imperial County, California, set in the low Colorado Desert about 220 feet below sea level. It is the largest developed community on the Salton Sea's Imperial County coastline and lies within the El Centro metropolitan area, though it is closer in geography and daily orientation to the Coachella Valley to the north. State Route 86 runs past the community, connecting it to Indio and the Palm Springs area on one side and to Brawley and El Centro on the other. The community is best understood as an unfinished ambition. In the late 1950s, developer M. Penn Phillips and his Holly Corporation platted Salton City as a grand desert resort community, laying out roughly 19,600 acres with about 250 miles of suburban roads and plans for tens of thousands of lots, a yacht club, hotels, and amenities. For a time, the Salton Bay Yacht Club and other attractions drew visitors to the new shoreline community, but the resort vision never fully materialized, and the Salton Sea's later environmental decline further tempered growth. The result is a distinctive landscape of extensive paved streets and many vacant lots. Today Salton City has a population of about 5,200 people, a significant increase from under 1,000 residents at the turn of the century as affordable desert housing attracted newcomers. It is a low-density, semi-rural community where homes are widely scattered, and residents rely on the Coachella and Imperial valleys for most services. Students attend the Coachella Valley Unified School District, including West Shores High School and Sea View Elementary within the community. The Salton Sea remains the area's defining natural feature, with the Salton Sea State Recreation Area to the north and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park to the west providing recreation. For buyers, Salton City offers some of the most affordable land and housing in California, combined with a remote desert setting and a fascinating piece of mid-century planning history.