http://www.desertsun.com/story/news...acklash-cv-link-grows-rancho-mirage/25909377/ :x
Strong opposition from Rancho Mirage residents and elected leaders to the proposed CV Link path is threatening to dramatically alter plans for the cross-valley project.
The bashing lasted for more than 90 minutes during the Rancho Mirage City Council meeting Thursday. Residents — many from the Thunderbird communities — said they worry CV Link will destroy landscaping, create safety issues and make it more difficult for vehicles to access or pull off of Highway 111.
“We do not see this proposal as beneficial in any way to the homeowners,” said Sondra Jones, a Thunderbird Cove homeowners association board member.
“The whole thing to me is just grotesque,” resident Roger Sack said moments later.
Initial plans for CV Link call for the pathway to wind approximately 50 miles from Palm Springs to Coachella, with extensions eventually going north into Desert Hot Springs and east toward the Salton Sea.
Billed as the largest project of its kind in the nation, funding for the $100 million path has included grants from the state of California, Desert Healthcare District and the largest single grant from Sentinel power plant mitigation funding.
Running, walking, cycling and other activities would be allowed on the trail, as would low-speed electric vehicles such as golf carts.
CV Link mostly would run along the Whitewater River wash, but in Rancho Mirage much of the wash runs through gated country clubs. Instead of disrupting golf courses, the Coachella Valley Association of Government — the lead agency on CV Link — has proposed routing the path mostly along Highway 111 through Rancho Mirage.
Finalizing that route has proven difficult. On Thursday, the City Council unanimously rejected recommendations for two segments on the path.
One would have run the path along the existing Butler-Abrams Trail, and another would have taken users near the Rancho Mirage Public Library.
Council members and residents said they did not want to see the existing trail disturbed.
City Manager Randy Bynder said the city already has asked Coachella Valley Water District, which owns the land for the Butler-Abrams Trail, to deny an easement to CVAG.
Rancho Mirage officials promised residents they will oppose any move by CVAG to use eminent domain to build CV Link.
Other comments from council members indicated a larger dissatisfaction with the proposal.
“In Rancho Mirage, we see the linkway as being impeding to traffic, impeding to business and impeding to access to our homes,” said Dana Hobart, the councilman who was appointed mayor earlier in the meeting.
Some council members raised the possibility of the city pulling out of CV Link entirely and suggested the path could be routed around the city.
“There are many cities in the valley that may benefit from this project. Rancho Mirage is not one of them,” Councilman Richard Kite said.
The council first went public with concerns over the path two weeks ago when it unanimously passed a resolution opposing a plan by CVAG to pay for the path’s ongoing maintenance and operations, estimated to start at $1.6 million annually when the path is completed in a few years.
The recommendation asked cities to pay a portion of their future increases in hotel tax revenues to help maintain the path. Rancho Mirage leaders said that would leave their city paying more than its fair share, countering with a funding plan based on the length of CV Link in each city.
CVAG pulled the proposal before a committee vote four days later. On Thursday, CVAG Executive Director Tom Kirk said his staff was talking with valley city managers to formulate additional options.
Kirk said he will continue to work with Rancho Mirage on the concerns the city has raised.
“Connecting the eastern Coachella Valley to the western Coachella Valley in a safe way is certainly a priority, but we have to address specific site issues, too,” Kirk said.
Bynder said he planned to meet with CVAG at least one more time to discuss a funding plan the city could support. If progress isn’t made, Bynder suggested attorneys may have to get involved.
At least one homeowner association is already talking to attorneys. Danforth Smith, president of Thunderbird Villas, said he and his neighbors are adamantly opposed to CV Link.
Smith envisioned moving streams of cyclists, runners and golf carts blocking him from getting in and out of his neighborhood.
“It’s tough enough getting out of there with traffic now,” Smith said. “With this thing, they’ll be more problems.”
