SALINAS – The city of Salinas is seeking public input as it charts the course of the city’s future with the Vision Salinas 2040 Updated General Plan.
The public is invited to join an open house Saturday to discuss the plan and provide feedback.
The event will consist of two portions: the first part of the day will be an open house with informational posters, giving attendees the opportunity to ask city staff questions. In the second part, there will be a series of panels on different topics related to the General Plan.
“It’s really about hearing from people…and how the General Plan impacts them,” said Jonathan Moore, the senior planner for the city of Salinas.
The open house will be held at the National Steinbeck Center on Saturday morning from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
The General Plan Update aims to provide a blueprint for the coming years, giving the city the chance to create more housing choice, room for small businesses to grow, places to recreate and put Salinas on course for sustainability. The plan also highlights what kind of infrastructure and transportation projects will be prioritized and funded.
Moore said the update gives Salinas the opportunity to reprioritize and streamline its operations, making it more efficient, better aligned with the interests of residents and more compliant with state law.
A big part of this is a new Zoning Code, Moore said, designating what can and can’t be done on a certain property.
“Overall, we’re trying to get to a code that is a little more user friendly, it’s a little more streamlined that allows things that fit with the community’s vision to be built faster,” Moore said.
Every city and county in California is required to develop a general plan to guide its development. Across the state, each general plan has eight mandatory elements: land use, circulation (transportation), housing, conservation, noise, open space, safety and environmental justice.
Salinas also includes the optional Community Design and Economic Development elements.
In Salinas, the existing General Plan went into effect 1998. Vision Salinas is the first update to the Salinas’ General Plan since 2002.
Since this, the city has grown significantly in both size and population. Along with new state laws and the rise of challenges like the housing crisis, climate change and the long-term effects of the global pandemic, Moore said an updated general plan is more critical than ever.
“A lot has changed,” Moore said.
In addition to the new Zoning Code, much of the updated content reflects new environmental regulations and increasing ecological awareness in the city.
A new Environmental Justice Element aims to address unequal distributions of health hazards like pollution, pesticide exposure, lack of access to healthcare and access to healthy foods across the city. The Environmental Justice Element is required as of 2016, after former Governor Jerry Brown signed it into law.
The Environmental Justice Element includes a host of actions aimed at addressing these issues, from ongoing coordination with the County Agricultural Commissioner to regulate pesticide use, to longer-term efforts to strengthen Blue Zones partnerships and found community gardens.
With the updated General Plan comes the city’s first ever Climate Action Plan, a comprehensive plan to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions. The plan identifies areas of opportunity, like retrofitting existing buildings for greater efficiency, expanding access to solar energy and accelerating the transition to zero-emission vehicles in the city.
While the Climate Action Plan is not part of the General Plan itself, Moore said the two go hand in hand and will both be discussed on Saturday.
Currently a public review draft of the Vision Salinas 2040 Current Plan can be found at https://www.salinas.gov/Newsroom/Public-Notices
The open house will have free food and childcare. To register, visit https://www.salinas.gov/Events/General-Plan-Open-House
Chris Hamilton is a California Local News fellow covering Salinas and the Salinas Valley for The Herald.
