PLATFORM

Cathedral City is ready for its next chapter.

Three priorities. Real plans. Rooted in what District 5 residents are telling us.

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Fix What's Broken

Core services, infrastructure, and daily quality of life

District 5 residents know what it means when infrastructure falls short. The Panorama neighborhood experienced devastating flooding during Hurricane Hilary, a reminder that storm drain infrastructure isn’t an abstract budget line, it’s people’s homes and safety. Road quality throughout the district is a daily frustration for residents, and an embarrassing first impression for the visitors who notice the difference the moment they cross into Cathedral City. And when residents report illegal dumping, unresolved code violations, or dangerous speeding, they deserve more than a case number — they deserve to know something actually happened.

Cathedral City has the resources to do better on these basics. The plan is to make sure they’re deployed with accountability and real follow-through.

How We Get There:

  • Develop a long-term, funded plan for upgrading storm drain infrastructure in existing neighborhoods, prioritizing areas with documented flooding history
  • Increase investment in road repaving and maintenance, with a clear schedule residents can see and track
  • Improve response time and transparency for people who report code violations
  • Add another dedicated motorcycle officer focused on speeding and reckless driving on residential streets
  • Establish and expand neighborhood watch programs for more “eyes on the street” and stronger community connection
  • Expand the CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) program and organize it by neighborhood to build local resilience and surge capacity during emergencies
  • Strengthen enforcement of illegal short-term rentals that operate outside the rules and erode neighborhood quality of life
  • Increase enforcement of businesses that don’t maintain their properties or violate conditions of approval
  • Create a low-cost or free dog microchipping program in partnership with local shelters or animal organizations, paired with stronger enforcement of chipping requirements

Grow Our Economy

Jobs, development, and opportunity for the whole city

Empty storefronts are one of the most visible signs of missed opportunity in Cathedral City, and residents name them constantly when talking about what the city is missing. The problem isn’t that Cathedral City is unattractive to businesses. It’s that the city has been reactive: approving whatever comes through the door rather than going after what we actually need.

The anchors are already there downtown — CV Rep, Mary Pickford, Agua Caliente Casino. With the right plan and real recruitment effort, the connective tissue of restaurants, retail, and a hotel can turn a collection of destinations into a district the whole city is proud of. That same intentional approach should extend to every commercial corridor in the city.

How We Get There:

  • Develop a new Downtown Specific Plan that defines what the downtown entertainment district should become and gives developers a clear roadmap — priority anchors are a hotel, destination dining, and the kind of retail that creates a walkable district
  • Develop a Date Palm Drive corridor Specific Plan to bring coordinated vision and investment to one of the city’s most visible commercial streets
  • Conduct a valley-wide gap analysis to identify what businesses and uses the Coachella Valley is missing, then proactively target growing independent concepts that are succeeding in other markets and ready to expand
  • Launch a coordinated business recruitment strategy, making targeted asks to the right operators instead of waiting for businesses to find us
  • Reach out directly to successful local businesses throughout the valley and ask them to open a second or third location in Cathedral City
  • Create sales tax incentive programs for unique or underrepresented business types that fill gaps residents have identified: sit-down restaurants, specialty grocers, entertainment venues
  • Establish a commercial vacancy tax to create a financial incentive for property owners to actively lease their spaces rather than sit on them

Build for Our Future

The right housing, smart development, and city character

Cathedral City has always been a city of people who make things — with their hands, their art, their craft. The Cove neighborhood started as an artist colony and the city has a strong trades community. That identity isn’t something we need to import, it’s already here. The goal is to build on it.

The next council will be the first to work with Cathedral City’s newly updated development code — the most significant modernization of the city’s zoning rules in a generation. It opens the door to workforce housing, mixed-income options, and live/work spaces for artists, makers, and tradespeople. As a member of both the Planning Commission and the Steering Committee for the Development Code Update, I helped shape that framework. I know what it makes possible, and I intend to use it with intention.

How We Get There:

  • Work with other Valley cities to establish a Regional Affordable Housing Trust Fund, financed by increased planning application fees and in-lieu fees on new housing development, to create a dedicated, sustainable source of funding for affordable units
  • Support conversion of underutilized and vacant commercial properties to residential uses, putting empty buildings to work while adding housing options
  • Expand access to subsidized childcare through a College of the Desert partnership at Cathedral City High School, and require new large residential and mixed-use developments to include childcare facilities
  • Commission a survey of Cathedral City’s historic and cultural resources, the foundation of any preservation strategy, and a way to document the city’s authentic character before it’s lost
  • Opt the city into the Mills Act to give property owners a financial incentive to preserve historic and culturally significant buildings
  • Establish a free tree program in partnership with local water authorities, to increase shade and reduce the urban heat island effect in residential neighborhoods
  • Establish a community garden program to build neighborhood connection and expand access to fresh food
  • Expand community engagement and increase transparency with regular in-person outreach and email newsletters

Now, the Reality

City government moves slowly, and I’ll be only one voice on a five-member council. I’m not promising to show up on day one and make all of this happen overnight. What I am promising is that these aren’t talking points. They’re the product of real research, real conversations with residents, and real work on the Planning Commission and Development Code Update. This is the direction I’ll push, every chance I get.

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