Salinas plans to spread far and wide, but at what cost to current residents?

They put it in writing in 2002, as part of a General Plan update: Sometime in the future, the city of Salinas would overspill its boundaries into a “future growth area” between Boronda, San Juan Grade and Russell roads. The North of Boronda Future Growth Area includes what’s known as the West Area Specific Plan and it purports to feature “new urbanism principles” that will create a compact, walkable city-within-the-city. When those principles are applied to the West Area, the planned community will include 4,340 dwelling units (high-, medium – and low-density in a “variety of housing products,” according to the city) along with 500,000-plus square feet of mixed-use, commercial and residential space, parks, walking paths and schools, spread out on 797 acres, most of which is currently used for farming.

Great, right? Salinas needs housing. It’s one of the country’s least affordable places to live, coming in fifth on a list of the 10 most expensive metro areas, according to a 2018 study by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Forty-four percent of Salinas households spend a third or more of their income on housing, and the median home price in 2018 was nearly $550,000. A two-bedroom rental goes for about $1,800 a month, not that there are a lot of rentals to be found. Media refer to it as a crisis because that’s what it is – a crisis. Some neighbors I like are packing up to move to Texas as I write this: Their landlord is selling their house, which is badly in need of repairs and updating, and they can’t find any place in town they can afford to rent; for $649,000, the four-bedroom house with a detached studio and a large adjacent lot on Pajaro Street can be yours, if you’re willing to buy it “as is.”

So yes, it’s a crisis. And yes, Salinas needs housing. And yes, the West Area Specific Plan purports to create a lot of it, eventually, at least. The build-out will take multiple years, and the affordable housing the city requires via its inclusionary ordinance might not come until the end of the build-out.

At a Salinas Planning Commission meeting on Dec. 4, the West Area Specific Plan took another step closer to reality, as the seven-member commission voted unanimously after a two-hour-plus discussion to approve the environmental impact report for the plan, approve the rezoning of the land and send it on to the Salinas City Council for its inevitable approval.

But, there are a lot of buts.

Some of those buts came from expected places. Monterey Bay Economic Partnership, for example, sent a letter advocating for an additional density bonus for the project. LandWatch Executive Director Mike DeLapa argued that the plan “as hard as it tries, is not smart planning,” as the average density requirement of nine units per acre favors large, probably expensive single-family homes over apartments. That density, meanwhile, will encourage more auto traffic, not less, bike paths and walking trails be damned. Instead, DeLapa says, the city should consider adopting a reduced land area project alternative that would bring density to 11 units per acre.

“Why would the city want to approve more low-density sprawl that doesn’t meet the needs of its working residents, that tax its schools, increase air pollution and greenhouse gases, and turn farmland into concrete?” he says.

About those schools being taxed? There’s another but, this one comes in the form of multiple school districts wondering how they’re going to pay for the schools the plan requires. In a letter to the Planning Commission, SUHSD Superintendent Dan Burns writes the draft EIR “fails to consider the realities” of school funding and, as a result, fails to consider the impacts to school districts when the development adds upwards of 2,000 new students.

“There are simply insufficient school facilities to house these students and no available funding to construct new facilities,” Burns writes. “What will occur instead is an influx of students to the district’s existing school facilities, which are already at or exceeding capacity.”

The plan moves next to City Council Dec. 17. Will lawsuits follow? Stay tuned.

MARY DUAN writes Local Spin for Monterey County Weekly. Reach her at mary@mcweekly.com or follow her at twitter.com/maryrduan