La Quinta Buys More Land For Affordable Housing

"Finding a reliable home is hard right now for a lot of individuals and La Quinta has always been a front runner on affordable housing," said Gil Villalpando, Housing Development Director for the City of La Quinta.

More affordable housing units are on their way to the Coachella Valley. The city of La Quinta unanimously approved buying the land just northeast of Highway 111 and Dune Palms Road which will be the future site of an affordable housing complex.

"We thought it was perfect for anyone who works along Highway 111 or has children who attend the schools right there," said Villalpando.

The 5-acre lot is the second parcel of land purchased by the city with affordable housing in mind. In February 20-22, the city bought a 15-acre lot just west of the land it purchased last week for $8.6 million. Both lots are located near Highway 111, a main retail hub for valley residents which officials say make it the ideal location to live and work.

"We’re looking to do about 9 acres of development in the back portion, anywhere from 150 to 200 homes is what we’re looking at with retail on the front," said Villalpando. "We can do retail on the front and create jobs there and then allow individuals to live on the backside of it. So they can go up and down CV link if they need to get to work, if they need to ride a bike or just get on a nice, safe path."

The city will pay $3.6 million for the land out of its $18 million in housing funds.

La Quinta is already home to multiple affordable housing communities and the city says they are eager to offer more not only affordable units, but quality homes.

"We believe that individuals deserve a quality place to live… something that they can be proud of," said Villalpando.

The city says they are currently in the process of finding a developer to come up with a quality product for this land purchase. As of now, there’s no word on when the new affordable housing units will be developed or how many units the complex will house.