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Soledad council reviews MST circulator plan as Ace Hardware warns proposed stop will cripple loading zone
Summary
Monterey-Salinas Transit presented a Soledad circulator with 30-minute service and ADA-compliant stops; Hartnell College leaders backed the routing for students while Ace Hardware’s owner said a planned 90-foot curb stop would remove his critical loading zone and harm his $3.5M investment. Council asked staff to seek alternate locations and parking/loading mitigations before final approvals.
Monterey-Salinas Transit (MST) on Wednesday outlined plans for a new Soledad fixed-route circulator that would run every 30 minutes and add ADA-compliant bus stops around downtown, prompting sharply divided public comment from a local small business owner and Hartnell College representatives.
MST director Michelle Overmyer told the council the circulator is designed to improve local mobility and connects to regional services; she said ridership in Soledad increased 38% year‑over‑year and that MST logged just over 19,000 boardings in the city from January through June. “Sixty percent of our bus riders reported they don’t have a car available to them,” she said, noting that 20% of riders would miss work,…
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