Coachella Valley Trails Alliance Plans Valley-Wide Trail System
With its official non-profit status in pocket, and the idea that theres no time like the present, the Coachella Valley Community Trails Alliance is pressing forward with an ambitious valley-wide trails project.
How ambitious? Well, eventually, organizers hope, a trail will wind its way through the valley all the way from Palm Springs to the Salton Sea. And on its way there, it will interconnect with other trails, which will lead off into the mountains on either side of the valley.
But the executive director of the Coachella Valley Community Trails Alliance wants to stress that trails planning is an exhaustive and difficult task, and that it will likely take decades, not months, to produce a mature system.
"Were starting in the eastern part of the Valley, because its where the opportunity exists to establish a community trails network as development occurs," says LeGrand Velez, who is the sole paid employee of the Trails Alliance. "But once we get an established trail system in the east end, I think the rest of the valley will more easily perceive the benefits."
The Coachella Valley Community Trails Alliance serves as a resource center for those interested in establishing a non-motorized trails network. The Alliance, governed by a volunteer board of directors, is actively seeking financial and volunteer support. It also has already established a bank of resources, including maps and other data which can be useful to regional planners.
Velez, who also serves as Fourth District Supervisor Roy Wilsons representative on the county Parks and Open Space District Trails Committee, has an extensive background in parks and public infrastructure planning.
For more information, call 398-4444 or visit the Trails Alliance office at the DACE Resource Center in Coachella, or visit the website at www.cvcta.org. The address for the Trails Alliance office at the DACE Resource Center is 53-990 Enterprise Way, Suite 9, Coachella 92236.
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