Community Profiles

Coachella

The Desert Sun

The City of Coachella is touted as "City of Eternal Sunshine - Gateway to the Salton Sea." The optimistic slogan understates the tremendous large inventory of affordable land, including large tract agricultural acreage being converted to meet the demands of business. Coachella -- including the adjacent unincorporated communities of Thermal and Mecca -- are surrounded by more than 70,000 acres of land irrigated by the Colorado River via a strategic canal system. The water has historically been used to grow some of many of California's largest crops of grapes, lemons, oranges, avocados, figs and persimmons. Tomorrow, it will be used to grow new business and industry such as the proposed Entertainment District that could include a theme park, hotels, a sports stadium, junior college and two Indian tribe-owned casinos.

Population: 30,764.    (35.4 percent growth since 2000)