The city of Coachella celebrates its 75 years

Today, the city of Coachella marked its 75th anniversary, while looking ahead toward the future.

Coachella became the valley's third incorporated city back on December 13, 1946.

It started as less than three square miles with only a thousand residents and now stretches across more than 30 square miles with about 42,000 residents.

City officials expect the population to double within the next 10 years. Mayor Steven Hernandez says he's proud of the direction the city is heading.

"We've been aggressively pursuing improvements on our corridors, Avenue 48 and 52, as well as we just were the recipient of a brand-new state grant for a new park, so $8.5 million is coming towards the city of Coachella that's going to allow us to make sure that we're the city with the most park space per capita," Hernandez told News Channel 3's Peter Daut. "We want to make sure that we have good amenities, of good parks and good libraries, good recreational opportunities, in terms of bikeways, etc. Infrastructure is the most important thing a city can do to ensure good quality of life, so we're really focused on infrastructure."

Watch the full interview in the player above to learn more about how the city has evolved over the past 75 years and Hernandez's hopes for the future.