CV Link officially opened in November 2025, providing 40 miles of multi-modal pathway for pedestrians, cyclists and low-speed electric vehicle users to travel across the Coachella Valley. Built largely along the Whitewater River/ Coachella Valley stormwater channel, CV Link spans the Cities of Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Palm Desert, La Quinta, Indio and Coachella.
CV Link is one of the most ambitious projects of its kind in California, and it has earned statewide attention for its bold vision, perseverance in planning and innovative construction. But the original vision for the project, which dates back to late 2011, was to construct an even longer pathway that would have also provided connections to the Cities of Desert Hot Springs, Rancho Mirage and Indian Wells – creating a spine of an alternative transportation network for all parts of the Coachella Valley. The Coachella Valley Association of Governments (CVAG), which was the lead agency building CV Link, decided not to include those three cities in the first phase of CV Link based largely on the political pushback from those cities’ councilmembers at the time.
This report provides a recap of the decisions that were made and, in some cases, what steps are being taken to address the missing connections.
City of Desert Hot Springs
To understand why CV Link is not in the City of Desert Hot Springs, it is first helpful to understand CV Link’s initial funding sources.
California Assembly Bill 1318 (2009) facilitated the construction of the CPV Sentinel Energy Project, an 800-megawatt natural gas-fired peaker power plant in the western Coachella Valley. The legislation also directed the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) to transfer emission reduction credits to offset the plant’s environmental impact and established a local mitigation fund. Fast forward to early 2012, and SCAQMD’s Board of Directors was looking to distribute more than $50 million in mitigation funding to the region. Part of the requirements was to ensure funding went to Environmental Justice areas as well as a percentage for projects in “close proximity” to the power plant. At the same time, then-Riverside County Supervisor John J. Benoit – who also was a voting member of both CVAG’s Executive Committee and SCAQMD Board of Directors – was advocating for all the funding to come to the Coachella Valley.
During this time, CVAG was in the midst of supporting efforts to develop regional Neighborhood and Plug-in Electric Vehicle/ Alternative Transportation programs. CVAG’s Executive Director Tom Kirk shared the idea he initially called the Whitewater Parkway 1e11 with Supervisor Benoit and Desert Health Care District/ Foundation Director Kay Hazen, gaining their input and support. The idea was shared with local news media as a “paved path from Desert Hot Springs to Coachella,” with Supervisor Benoit calling it “something dramatic, something iconic” that would require significant outside funding to make happen. CVAG’s Executive Committee threw their support behind the idea through a series of votes that included approving the use of regional transportation funding “as a potential match as long as such funding does not delay construction of any currently obligated project or delay any other pending high priority project.”
Securing AB 1318 funds was critical, especially given CV Link’s benefits to improving air quality by shifting trips away from vehicles toward active transportation and golf carts. Supervisor Benoit – one of the biggest champions for CV Link – gave clear direction to CVAG that a valleywide project like this needed to include Desert Hot Springs. But CVAG staff knew that a five-to-10 miles-long extension north of Interstate 10 would be ambitious and pricey, and only feasible with support from City leadership. It also would take additional analysis, as the 2009 Regional Trails Study that predated CV Link did not include a direct link between Desert Hot Springs and the Whitewater River bike path, where CV Link is largely built.
When CVAG was ready to submit grant applications in February 2012, Kirk went to the Desert Hot Springs City Council and asked the Council for clarity on their position. Desert Hot Springs Mayor Scott Matas (who was a Councilman at the time) suggested that the City’s position on CV Link shouldn’t be like the City’s position had been on the Coachella Valley Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan, where the City was in the conservation plan then out of the plan and then back in the plan. But then-Mayor Pro Tem Russell Betts and then-Councilman Adam Sanchez were adamant that the City should not send a letter of support for CV Link’s application for SCAQMD funding because the City intended on seeking the money for city projects. At a Council meeting held the week after Kirk’s presentation, both Councilmembers (Betts and Sanchez) voted twice against having the City from sending a letter of support for CV Link funding efforts.
Apparently worried that the community didn’t get the message, Betts also shared his concerns about CV Link in an email sent to a Desert Hot Springs resident in 2012 that was then shared with CVAG and with local news media. Betts stated that “Without commenting on the value of the parkway through the rest of the Coachella Valley, for the part that is proposed for Desert Hot Springs, the best words to describe it are unworkable boondoggle.” Betts’ email went on to state that “No thinking person after seeing those details can come to a reasonable conclusion that the parkway as proposed in Desert Hot Springs is a wise or proper use of the mitigation funds or funds from any other source. We have far greater needs, can accomplish the same for less and for those portions that would connect us to the rest of the valley cities, it is simply not a workable plan.”
Without the City’s support, a regional agency like CVAG would be hard pressed to sell a grant application that included millions in planning and construction to build CV Link in Desert Hot Springs. The City also did not send a letter of support when CVAG applied for round one of California’s Active Transportation Program, which resulted in a $10.9 million award for CV Link. Based on the lack of support from City Council, CVAG was forced to shift any plans for CV Link in Desert Hot Springs to a later phase.
It should be noted that CVAG staff never lost sight of the benefits that would result from having CV Link connect to Desert Hot Springs. The Parkway 1e11 Preliminary Study Report (PSR) included a route that utilized Gene Autry Trail, Palm Drive, Desert Dunes Golf Course, the Verbena Wash, Desert View Avenue and terminated at Cabots Pueblo Museum. This route – which would avoid habitat conservation areas and serve a populated area – was also included as one of the future route options when CVAG issued the 2016 CV Link Conceptual Master Plan.
Over the years, CVAG also has contributed funding to a constellation of projects geared toward bicycle and pedestrian safety features along Palm Drive that could connect with an extension of CV Link into Desert Hot Springs. More recently, CVAG and Desert Hot Springs staffs have also identified the need to further study and determine the preferred routes to connect Desert Hot Springs to the CV Link, including addressing the complicated crossings of Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) and Interstate 10. In September 2025, the CVAG Executive Committee, based on the recommendation of the Transportation Committee, authorized up to $130,000 to develop alternative route analysis and conceptual plan that would guide future engineering and design work and inform funding applications. At least five alternatives are being actively analyzed, with the route analysis wrapping in 2026.
City of Rancho Mirage
The City of Rancho Mirage was one of CV Link’s earliest supporters, with one 2012 letter of support stating “the Coachella Valley is an ideal location for this innovative project which will revitalize our communities by creating a new network for alternative forms of transportation and stimulating the local economy with jobs.” The CV Link team initially researched and analyzed 13 alternatives through Rancho Mirage, and worked closely with the City and other stakeholders to arrive at the alternatives studied during CV Link’s planning stages. Three years after issuing letters of support and voting to support grant applications, the City launched what was the most assertive and well-orchestrated opposition campaign against the project, focused mainly on funding sources and future costs. However, over the months, concerns broadened to include perceived safety concerns resulting from connecting diverse neighborhoods, including a concern that thieves would use golf carts to burglarize homes. City leaders even stated CV Link should be opposed because the vibrations that CV Link users would create would hurt their observatory, which was built along busy Highway 111. The City’s outspoken opposition was championed by Rancho Mirage Mayor Dana Hobart, a litigator who worked relentlessly in the court of public opinion to campaign against CV Link.
Rancho Mirage’s opposition officially started on April 2, 2015, just days before the Transportation Committee was going to discuss the Master Plan and start conversations about potential ways to fund operations and maintenance costs. On that date, the Rancho Mirage City Council held a closed-door meeting to discuss “potential initiation of litigation” as it pertains to CV Link. The Council voted 5-0 to “direct the City Attorney and City Manager to immediately notify CVAG Executive Director that the City of Rancho Mirage opposes the CV Link Project until a fair funding mechanism is developed for the operation and maintenance of the CV Link Project based on each city’s proportional share of mileage of the CV Link Project located within each jurisdiction – not using TOT (Transient Occupancy Tax) and/or the diversion of Measure A funds from local streets and road projects.”
CVAG staff attempted to address the City’s emerging concerns with a spirit of cooperation, including a series of workshops in 2015 that were focused on future operations and maintenance costs. But the pushback from Mayor Hobart and City leaders was relentless. CV Link became a standard item on Rancho Mirage City Council meeting agendas, where Council adopted a long list of policy positions such as opposing proposed options along Highway 111, the existing Butler Abrams Trail, Date Palm Drive, Gerald Ford Drive and Monterey Avenue. At one point, to further reinforce the Council’s position that Butler Abrams could not be used as part of CV Link, the City even removed signs allowing for golf carts that had once dotted the Butler Abrams Trail.
CVAG staff provided many additional alternatives during 2015 for consideration in the City. Twice, CVAG made formal offers to design a modified CV Link that would have prohibited neighborhood electric vehicles in the City of Rancho Mirage. In September 2015, CVAG’s committees showed they were willing to spend additional funding to study “City of Rancho Mirage Proposed Route for CV Link” that involved Ramon Road. The same day that Rancho Mirage staff supported the idea at a CVAG Technical Advisory Committee meeting, Mayor Hobart sent an email to the CVAG Executive Director stating the map that the City had supported was now a “fraud” and that it is “falsely presenting Rancho Mirage’s position.” The Executive Committee on September 28, 2015 decided not to study this segment because it didn’t connect to the rest of CV Link and – even if it did connect – would have created a miles-long detour for pedestrians, bicyclists and others. Instead, the Executive Committee’s direction included the study of a “no build” option in Rancho Mirage.
After voting to oppose various routes and after formally withdrawing Ramon Road as a potential option from the City’s perspective, the Rancho Mirage City Council in October 2015 formally announced ballot measures that would be placed on the April 2016 ballot. Before they approved the measures, the City received a letter from the Greater Palm Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau which asked the Mayor to “reconsider your stance on the CV Link and work with us to improve the quality of life, tourism economy and safety for the residents and visitors to Coachella Valley.” That same day, the City Council unanimously voted to put six measures on the April 2016 ballot. The City filed the ballot measures with the Riverside County Registrar of Voters, but allowed certain campaign filing deadlines to pass without any further action.
The City Council then voted on December 17, 2015 to replace those ballot measures with three advisory measures about CV Link and one measure that will bind the hands of Rancho Mirage’s future City Councils. CVAG staff has repeatedly expressed concerns about the misleading wording of both the original and the revised ballot measures. CVAG staff made several requests to City staff to meet about these measures, but the Council moved forward with them before the City staff and City Attorney could make themselves available to meet with CVAG staff. Voters passed the ballot measures by wide margin in 2016.
In addition to making CV Link a standard topic on Rancho Mirage Council agendas and passing resolutions that memorialized the Council’s opinions on potential routes and the use of neighborhood electric vehicles, City officials devoted substantial public resources to their efforts to block CV Link. Rancho Mirage City officials made news in September 2015 when they ensured CV Link dominated a regional transportation planning meeting held by the Riverside County Transportation Commission. Mayor Hobart has filed a continuous stream of public record requests, which cost CVAG staff hundreds of hours of staff time. He regularly sent mass emails to Executive Committee members about his thoughts on CV Link and upcoming project decisions, usually starting with “please do not respond by ‘reply all’ or to me directly” – eventually prompting warnings from the CVAG Legal Counsel about the potential for Brown Act violations. And City Hall spent an unknown amount of their own taxpayer-funded resources to produce a 50-minute roundtable television show, circulate a dozen different Mayor’s Messages and distribute a full magazine spread titled “The Controversial CV Link: Visionary or Boondoggle?” to residents of Rancho Mirage.
The rhetoric against CV Link reached unprecedented heights as compared to public debate surrounding other infrastructure projects. CVAG’s meetings lasted hours longer than normal. There were calls for third-party legal reviews into Measure A and legal advice that had been provided by legal counsel for CVAG and for Riverside County Transportation Commission (RCTC). CV Link dominated headlines and led to polarizing letters to the editor in the local newspaper. In December 2015, CVAG staff had to call the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department after a series of hostile phone calls were placed to the office and to the parents of Executive Director Tom Kirk, whose father shared his name. The caller, who only identified himself as “Bob,” said he wanted to voice his opposition to CV Link and in doing so also left threatening messages. This prompted CVAG to have a Riverside County Sheriff’s deputy present at the next Executive Committee meeting – a first for CVAG – just to ensure the people’s business could be done in a safe and respectful manner.
In early 2016, Supervisor Benoit publicly called on his fellow elected officials to tone down the rhetoric. CVAG’s Executive Committee adopted the following policy statement: “While the Executive Committee, in accordance with state environmental law, will await an environmental analysis to approve or not approve the route throughout the valley, it is our expressed intent to take all steps necessary to omit Rancho Mirage segments from the preferred project.” Mayor Hobart cast the lone dissenting vote when the policy statement was approved.
In 2017, CVAG issued the required Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for public review and approval. Such an analysis is a disclosure document, which means that all current and future options should be considered. None of the alignments or termini that had been studied within Rancho Mirage’s city limits were recommended for approval when the EIR came to the Executive Committee for adoption. Still, Rancho Mirage submitted a 92-page comment letter that required 481 responses to individual comments. Rancho Mirage also cast the lone vote opposing the certification of the EIR.
In October 2017, former Palm Desert Mayor Jim Ferguson – a friend of Mayor Hobart – filed a lawsuit against CVAG attempting to halt the construction of CV Link while a court evaluated the legitimacy of CV Link’s funding sources. While Mayor Hobart said he was not part of the lawsuit, Ferguson’s complaint repeated the same arguments being made by Rancho Mirage as it pertains to Measure A regional sales tax funding. At the time, Mayor Hobart told one local news outlet that “considering that Mr. Ferguson’s lawsuit mirrors much of what Rancho Mirage has been contending over the past two-plus years, I believe that there is considerable merit to Ferguson’s contention that CVAG is misusing our road repair Measure A tax funds for their CV Link project.” One Desert Sun story noted that the newspaper had filed a public records request for copies of any conversations between Mr. Ferguson and city councilmembers as it related to the CV Link and the lawsuit. The paper later stated that “in response, the city acknowledged the existence of emails and text messages between Hobart and Ferguson, but said those records were not public.” In March 2018, before the first court hearing was even be held, Riverside County Superior Court Judge James Latting dismissed the lawsuit. Judge Latting’s summary judgement sustained the arguments raised by CVAG, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) and the Riverside County Transportation Commission (RCTC) that Mr. Ferguson had failed to raise any valid legal claims in his lawsuit.
To date, there have been no formal requests from the City about revisiting CV Link. At one point, then-Rancho Mirage City Manager Randy Bynder informed CVAG that “this community’s position will never change.”
City of Indian Wells
Indian Wells, which is the Coachella Valley’s smallest city, has a similar community demographic to the City of Rancho Mirage. The City’s representative on the CVAG Executive Committee in 2015 was then-Mayor Ty Peabody, who was a political ally of Mayor Hobart. It came as no surprise that the City of Indian Wells’ opposition to CV Link came on the heels of Rancho Mirage’s anti-CV Link campaign, with Mayor Peabody serving as a reliable echo to Mayor Hobart’s positions at the Executive Committee level.
On September 17, 2015, the City of Indian Wells had a lengthy special meeting dedicated to addressing CV Link. The City Council invited CVAG Executive Director Tom Kirk to present on CV Link and address Council members’ questions. The meeting garnered attention by a number of project supporters, and the General Managers of the City’s two largest hotels – Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa and the Renaissance Indian Wells Resort & Spa – sent Mayor Peabody a letter supporting CV Link as “an amenity we could market to our guests” and as a project that “not only enhance(s) the experience that visitors have when they come to Indian Wells, but encourage them to stay in the Coachella Valley longer and return more frequently.” The September 17 meeting was notable because the Indian Wells Council also made it a forum where Mayor Hobart was given ample time, similar to a public debate, to counter anything presented by CVAG. Mayor Hobart used this as an opportunity to express his personal views on route options, Measure A funding and future operational costs. Mayor Hobart also made an argument that each City Council should take a vote on the use of regional Measure A by CVAG, even though such use had been authorized years before by the CVAG Executive Committee. The September 17 meeting of Indian Wells City Council went so long that Council paused the discussion to handle other business before resuming their discussion of CV Link hours later. That day, the Indian Wells City Council officially stated they were not in favor of supporting the use of City Measure A for operations and maintenance, even though there had been no such request for city funds. The Council also officially opposed the routes being evaluated by CVAG along Highway 111 and the Whitewater River storm water channel.
Like Mayor Hobart, Mayor Peabody was a prolific writer when it came to CV Link. He would send long letters requesting data from CV Link, often in large font or on personal letterhead, and share the correspondence at Executive Committee meetings. Like Mayor Hobart, Mayor Peabody advocated for a city-by-city vote on CV Link. In November 2016, Indian Wells voters approved Measure H on the local ballot that established future voter approval would be needed for the Council to take action to “approve the establishment, development or installation” of CV Link “within the city.” When the CV Link Environmental Impact Report was approved in 2017, the CVAG Executive Committee supported a CV Link route that excluded Indian Wells from the project.
In 2019, Indian Wells leaders were approached by the City of La Quinta to address the city boundaries near Washington Street. La Quinta requested that Indian Wells allow it to annex a likely never-to-be-used-otherwise part of the Whitewater River stormwater channel near Point Happy. Such a minor adjustment would allow La Quinta to work with CVAG on an undercrossing at Washington Street instead of terminating CV Link with an at-grade termini on a fast-moving street. Indian Wells’ Legal Counsel determined such a vote would not violate the City’s Measure H and the issue came before the Indian Wells City Council in June 2019. At the time, Indian Wells Councilmember Kimberly Muzik stated “I didn’t even know that property was in Indian Wells and I’m sure the majority of people in Indian Wells didn’t know that that was Indian Wells’ property. My vote would be to give it to (La Quinta).” The Indian Wells Council voted 3-2 to deny La Quinta’s request.
In 2026, Indian Wells Mayor Toper Taylor publicly announced that there was interest in the City of Indian Wells to revisit CV Link. CVAG staff held meetings with City Managers from Indian Wells and La Quinta, at which time there was interest in revisiting the boundary adjustment at Washington Street to address the highest priority safety issue associated with the termini. If such a discussion could move forward, it would demonstrate some level of political support for the longer-term effort that would be required to revisit Indian Wells’ possible routes, including anything that was originally identified in the CV Link Master Plan, EIR or raised as a concept in the years since. As of today, Indian Wells staff has declined to bring the boundary adjustment forward to the Council for a vote.
Public comments issued by current Council members indicate their support is for routes that largely go around the City instead of through it. In 2026, CVAG staff followed up on the City Council’s public comments and conducted some initial analysis on 10 options, including a no-build option, related to CV Link between the City of Palm Desert and the City of La Quinta. One option – the route the Indian Wells City Manager identified as the most preferred because it would have taken CV Link users coming from La Quinta all the way up Washington Street and then over to Hovley – was immediately removed from the preliminary analysis for being infeasible due to heavy traffic volumes. It is also an option that almost entirely is routed around the city of Indian Wells. The analysis demonstrates that the safest and best way to close the gap between La Quinta and Palm Desert would be to create a route that traverses through Indian Wells. Of the options available, the top ranked options in CVAG’s cursory analysis were Option 9 along the Whitewater River and Option 1 along Highway 111. Both were officially opposed by the City Council in 2015 and there has been no indication from the City that there is interest in reversing that decision. It is, ultimately, a local, City of Indian Wells, decision to make.