Unincorporated Riverside County community Carver Tract to get sidewalks
The unincorporated community of Carver Tract — which officials describe as a “county island” between the cities of Indio and Coachella — will have sidewalks throughout the entire 200-home neighborhood in about a year following the approval Tuesday of funding to complete the construction project.
Supervisor V. Manuel Perez introduced an item enacted with a 4-0 vote by the Riverside County Board of Supervisors that earmarks $3.5 million from the 4th District’s portion of federal American Rescue Plan Act funding to pay for construction of the remaining sidewalks.
“Carver Tract had lacked sidewalks ever since its development in the years right after World War II,” county officials said in a statement announcing the board’s action on the sidewalk project.
The first phase of the county’s plan to add sidewalks in Carver Tract was completed last fall, adding the first sidewalks in the community’s history.
“The county already lined up funding for phase two of the sidewalks but funding for the third and final phase was still years out,” officials said. “With this funding, Riverside County can now build phase two and phase three together to complete all the sidewalks and drainage improvements.”
Officials observed that the $3.5 million from ARPA will speed up Perez’s goal of getting all the sidewalks built in the Carver Tract community.
“Carver Tract is an area that’s been unincorporated forever, an area that’s been neglected for a very long time,” Perez said in a statement. “It’s not in the City of Coachella, it’s not in the City of Indio. Unfortunately, the youth and the families there have never had sidewalks or any lighting and we’re finally, through ARPA money, able to use that money for the right reasons to improve the quality of life for these individuals that deserve it, that deserved it, for generations. These are folks that are farmworkers, these are folks that are service workers, these are folks who deserve a better place to live and I think that’s our responsibility.”
The Riverside County Transportation Department is currently in the final leg of the design process for the Carver Tract Sidewalk Safety Improvement Project Phase 2 and 3, officials said. The now-combined project is expected to start in spring 2024.