Travel into Salinas from any direction, and you pass by crops for miles. The city is an urban island, flanked by farm fields.
Agriculture is the economic engine of the city and region (a recent study calculated the ag industry generates $8.1 billion annually in economic activity).
But even with prime farmland fetching high prices—even higher as strawberry growers move southward, paying higher rent than lettuce growers—development is still competitive, and city limits may expand outward into adjacent farmland.
The city’s economic development element is a 25-year plan first released in April 2014. Now it’s on to the nitty gritty review under the California Environmental Quality Act, and city planners released a notice of preparation of an environmental impact report Oct. 6. The deadline for public comment is Dec. 7.
The plan calls for future urban development on nearly 15,000 acres, or 23 square miles. Much of that land, mostly on the northern edge of town, was already annexed by Salinas in 2008, but plans for 10,000 new homes stalled when the economy tanked.
The economic development plan calls for annexing an additional 7,100 acres, or 11 square miles, outside existing city limits.
Most of those acres are farmland, including 120 acres on the corner of Highway 68 and Blanco Road, across from Star Market and Nob Hill.
It’s owned by Tanimura Land Company, which leases the land to Tanimura & Antle. Even though the ranch is located on some of the best farmland in the country, it could be more valuable if developed, says T&A VP Kerry Varney.
“As urban land, it’s worth a lot more,” he says.
That trend is troubling to Amy White, director of land use watchdog LandWatch, which submitted a comment letter Nov. 30. “We’re encouraging them to assess vacant properties within city limits,” she says. “Prime ag land should be the very last resort.”