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Salinas staff previews draft Vision 2040 general plan, highlights housing, climate and transportation policies
Summary
City planning manager presented the draft Salinas General Plan Vision 2040, the first comprehensive update since 2002, highlighting a new place-type land-use approach, a circulation element with 51 actions and inclusion of a Climate Action Plan and environmental justice element; remaining chapters and an EIR will be released for public comment this spring.
Grant Leonard, Planning Manager, presented the Salinas draft General Plan Vision 2040 to the Traffic and Transportation Commission on Thursday, describing it as the city's first comprehensive general plan update since 2002.
Leonard said the draft, released in December, updates policy across housing, transportation, economic development, parks and recreation, noise, public safety and environmental justice. "It also includes the city's first Climate Action Plan and the city's first environmental justice element," he said, stressing a shift to a "place-type" land-use classification that provides more flexibility for infill and mixed-use development.
The plan, Leonard said, is organized into three pillars — the built environment, environmental sustainability and socioeconomic systems — and each chapter contains an introduction, assets and challenges, goals and policies, and implementation steps. For the circulation element, which is most relevant to this commission, staff identified three goals: provide a safe multimodal circulation system, support sustainable transportation options that reduce single-occupancy vehicle miles and support the local economy through reliable circulation for goods and people.
Leonard told commissioners the circulation element contains nine policies and 51 actions; staff have pulled circulation-specific materials from the full draft into a separate attachment to help reviewers focus solely on transportation issues. He said the project has included extensive engagement (about 23 workshops, working groups, pop-ups and multilingual outreach including indigenous languages) and that the environmental review and several chapters remain to be finalized.
The remaining chapters to be completed include the economic development element, the Climate Action Plan and the environmental review (an Environmental Impact Report). Leonard said the EIR and related documents will be published for a 45-day public comment period on the city website, physical copies at City Hall and the library, and to the State Clearinghouse.
Commissioners asked about who prepared the draft and the role of consultants. Leonard said most of the content was prepared by city staff; consultants prepared the environmental-review document and assisted with formatting and the outline. He later added that Kimley Horn provided supplemental assistance on the circulation element'they performed modeling and helped with some text.
Commission discussion touched on bicycle facility design standards. Commissioner Peterson expressed technical concerns about how the draft defines Class I multiuse trails and warned that certain designations could create unsafe crossing conditions on streets such as Laurel Drive. Leonard and commissioners agreed staff would accept technical suggestions and that commissioners could follow up for clarifications.
The commission did not take action on the general plan at the meeting; Leonard said staff will continue public outreach and revise the draft through summer with an anticipated adoption process later in the year. The public review period for the EIR and remaining documents will open this spring.
