Construction on a new Cathedral City park is finally under way—and it will soon bring open space and recreation to a historically underserved neighborhood after nearly a decade of planning, meetings and grant applications.
Ground was officially broken on the Dream Homes Park in early April, and it is slated to open in the spring of 2025. The site is a 7.5-acre stretch of land located to the east of Gene Autry Trail, in the neighborhood north of the shopping center including The Home Depot and Aldi on Ramon Road.
John Corella, the city’s director of public works and engineering, said at the groundbreaking on April 3 that Dream Homes residents approached the city nearly 10 years ago regarding the lack of development and recreation in their neighborhood. Long home to working families and once plagued by gang violence—a reputation the city has worked to shed—the Dream Homes neighborhood didn’t have any nearby recreational areas.
Organizations including local schools and the Coachella Valley Association of Governments also weighed in on planning efforts—but despite the need, Corella said the city kept hitting roadblocks on securing funding.
“We persisted,” Corella said. “That persistence was to accomplish a goal, and that was to get a grant for Dream Homes Park.”
Things changed in 2018, when California voters passed Proposition 68, a $4 billion bond measure for the development of parks and other infrastructure. About a fifth of the funding was dedicated to communities that had median household incomes less than 60% of the state average—and as of the 2020 Census, Cathedral City was one of those communities. Though Cathedral City applied for a grant as soon as funds became available, it didn’t get approved outright; the state reported receiving $2.3 billion in requests that first year, with just $254.9 million in grants available at the time.
But park planners didn’t give up, Corella said. More community meetings were held; Corella said organizations like the Desert Health Care District, Loma Linda University and the El Sol Neighborhood Education Center worked to support the project—doing health assessments that showed the importance of more recreation activity in the area, for example.
In December 2021, an $8.5 million award to Dream Homes Park was among the $44 million awarded to parks in the Coachella Valley and Imperial County via the Prop 68 bond program. (That year, about $395.3 million was available statewide.) Corella credited the efforts of Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, calling him the “orchestrator” of securing the funding.
Other parks being built in the Coachella Valley from that round of funding are:
- Indio Sports Park on Jackson Street, a 31-acre sports park that will have two baseball fields, four soccer fields, a football field and an open play field, plus other amenities.
- Central Park in Coachella, a 4.7-acre spot off 52nd Avenue that will include walking pads, picnic areas, community gardens and a splash pad.
- Thermal Park, a five-acre park in the unincorporated community that will have playground and sports amenities.
Sergio Espericueta, a member of Palm Springs School District Board of Education, raised his children, now adults, in the Dream Homes neighborhood. He told the Independent the park is a victory that local leaders “worked hard to get.”
Compared to people who live close to a park, those who live more than 3 miles away from a green space have nearly 50 percent higher odds of experiencing stress.
“It’s a lot of land over there, and it will be a quality park,” he said. “Anybody can use it, but the location is more a property for the neighborhood. and I think that will be a good place for the students to use it.”
Dream Homes Park’s planned amenities are specifically tailored to the needs of the community. While many desert-recreation spots feature pickleball courts—like the new ones recently installed in the open pit behind the Kimpton Rowan in downtown Palm Springs—Dream Homes Park will have soccer fields, basketball courts and multi-use fields. There’s also a futsal field, used for a globally popular football-style sport that’s played on a hard court.
Picnic areas, dog parks and shaded seating are also part of the plans, as is a centralized drop-off zone by the play areas. The city’s art commission is making plans for community-inspired murals, and the location will be connected to CV Link, the biking and jogging corridor through the Coachella Valley.
Ryan Hunt, Cathedral City’s communications and event manager, told the Independent that the amenities were decided upon after numerous community workshops, many of which were held at the Agua Caliente Elementary School, in the middle of the neighborhood. “Parks and open spaces are markers of healthy communities, and therefore, they serve as an area for establishing and improving the quality of life in a neighborhood,” he said.
According to the National Recreation and Parks Association, parks have a direct effect on the health and well-being of residents. This is particularly acute when it comes to mental health: Compared to people who live close to a park, those who live more than 3 miles away from a green space have nearly 50 percent higher odds of experiencing stress, the NRPA says. An Australian study published in Nature in 2016 found that spending at least 30 minutes outside during a week could reduce the prevalence of depression and high blood pressure by 7% to 9%.
Here in the desert, an abundance of natural beauty and near-constant sunshine are two main draws for many residents. But without safe and accessible ways to enjoy open space, people can’t reap the benefits. At the April groundbreaking, Mayor Mark Carnevale said that improving the quality of Cathedral City’s outdoor spaces “remains the top priority” for City Council.
“One of the key components that makes parks and outdoor facilities so special is that they’re free for the public to use and provide memorable gathering places for people of all ages and backgrounds,” he said.
