In Salinas’ long-range plans, developers and property owners win on appeal against school districts.

Over some 20 years, Salinas city officials mapped out plans for future growth. Their results were two planning documents – the West Area Specific Plan (WASP) and Central Area Specific Plan (CASP), approved in 2019 and 2020, respectively. The plans lay out a vision for development of thousands of new residential units for thousands of residents at full build-out over a 20 – to 30-year timeline.

With those new neighborhoods and people come needs and demands for public services, such as parks, streets and schools.

Those public needs are described in environmental impact reports (EIRs) for each plan. But school districts that would serve the new communities sued the City of Salinas, developers and property owners, alleging the plans failed to take into account the environmental impacts on existing schools, and failed to accurately account for overcrowding and added traffic in those schools, because developer impact fees would fall far short of what is required to build new schools.

Alisal Union and Salinas Union sued over the CASP; Santa Rita Union and Salinas Union sued over WASP. Both cases moved through the Monterey County Superior Court system, where the plaintiffs – the school districts – won their case.

In her ruling in the CASP case, Judge Carrie Panetta determined the City had erred: “The EIR shall address the potential environmental impacts near school facilities that could arise in the event there is insufficient funding to construct new schools.”

Property owners and developers appealed. And in a decision issued on Aug. 10, the Sixth District Court of Appeal overturned the trial court’s decision, ruling that the EIR was sufficient in its analysis of impacts to schools in the West Area plan.

“The districts’ expressed concerns about a perennial lack of sufficient school-facilities funding without providing more detailed information or identifying a more specific alternative plan to address this possibility – for which they, and not the City, would be responsible – amounted to no more than speculation and uncertainty,” the Court of Appeal found.

Salinas City Attorney Chris Callihan says it’s good news for Salinas. “Now that we have cleared this hurdle, thousands of homes will be built,” he says.

Attorneys representing the appellants declined to comment for this story.

The appeal related to the CASP area is still pending. The court’s decision in the WASP was published, meaning it can be cited in future cases. For its part, SUHSD settled both lawsuits.

The WASP area includes three new elementary schools and a middle school in Santa Rita Union’s district, and a high school within SUHSD boundaries. Santa Rita Superintendent Melissa Alderman says the district is exploring its options and stresses, without funds to build new campuses. “Our interest has always been just to ensure that students from the West Area Specific Plan have schools to attend near their homes in their neighborhoods,” she says.

According to a July facilities assessment, the district currently has 227 spots available for K-6 students and 78 for middle school students.