palm springs life magazine - october 2007
The Ultimate Trail
by Janice Kleinschmidt

One day you could walk from Palm Springs to the Salton Sea — the point being not that you could walk the 50-some miles in a day, but that there could be a trail connecting the east-west ends of the Coachella Valley.
That’s the mission of the nonprofit Coachella Valley Community Trails Alliance, whose executive director has established alliances to develop a valley wide system of paved and earthen paths for bicyclists, hikers, joggers, equestrians, and the mobility impaired.

“No public entity has the resources to plan, advocate, and build an urban regional trail system,” says LeGrand Velez, CVCTA’s executive director and only paid staff member. “You need someone to keep the focus, to coordinate with all the jurisdictions, and to keep the pressure and advocacy on a regular basis.”

In addition to working with the Coachella Valley Water District and Riverside County, the CVCTA is working with Coachella Valley cities to develop trail plans and funding for trails through developer fees.

“It’s interesting that the genesis of this is coming out of the development community,” says Velez, who holds a masters degree in natural resource management and has held public works positions that involved planning, constructing, and managing parks and trails. While visiting with family, he met Palm Desert developer Michael Granum, who, upon learning Velez’s background, told him about his idea for a regional urban trail system. Granum and Sam Belzberg, a developer from Canada and part-time Rancho Mirage resident, provided seed money to establish CVCTA.

Velez, who sits on the Riverside County Parks and Open Space District Trails Committee, says money to build the trails will come through city and county funds and developer contributions through conditions of building permits. “And there are federal and state funds that we can apply for,” he adds. He anticipates the project will take 25 to 30 years. “We hope to start building some sections within the next two years, probably starting in La Quinta and then Coachella.” The East Valley, he points out, is an easier starting point because it is not as built out as the West Valley.

Meanwhile, the CVCTA worked with Riverside County on a map of existing bike lanes and urban trails