City Of Palm Desert, Sunline Transit Win Sustainability Awards

COACHELLA VALLEY, CA — Two Riverside County government bodies won 2021 Sustainability Awards from the Southern California Association of Governments for improving quality of life in the area, officials said Wednesday.

The city of Palm Desert won the "active, healthy and safe communities" category for its San Pablo Avenue Streetscape project, which reconfigured a former five-lane roadway to be used by pedestrians an non- motorized uses in low-to-moderate income neighborhoods.

Sunline Transit Agency, which serves the Coachella Valley and Riverside County, won the "clean cities — alternative fuels and infrastructure" category for creating the U.S.' largest hydrogen fueling station dedicated to transit, using electricity and renewable energy to generate clean hydrogen.

"We're honored to present these awards, which recognize the best of the best when it comes to improving the quality of life of our communities and the region," said SCAG President Rex Richardson, who is also vice mayor of Long Beach. "As these projects illustrate, there is a tremendous amount of innovative work being done across our region when it comes to the integration of land use and transportation to improve health outcomes and address social, environmental and economic inequities."

The recipients will be formally honored at SCAG's virtual Regional Conference and General Assembly on May 6.