Salinas-Ag Industrial Center

Working under contract to the City of Salinas, EMC Planning Group recently completed an intensive scope of services to assist the City and the project applicant with the design, processing, and consideration of a 257-acre agricultural industrial center.  The center is envisioned as a hub of agricultural industrial activity and innovation and will provide the opportunity for synergistic uses to locate in immediate proximity to each other.  EMC Planning Group’s services were provided in the context of CEQA, as EMC Planning Group also prepared the program EIR for the proposed project. Specific plan, general plan amendment, sphere of influence amendment, rezoning, prezoning, annexation, and master subdivision approvals were sought and obtained.

EMC Planning Group’s main function was to serve as adjunct City staff, working with staff,  the applicant, and responsible agencies to identify issues and technical analysis requirements, collaborate on project design approaches to mitigate potential impacts, provide guidance to and review technical analyses prepared by the applicant and outside agencies (with significant focus on the highly complex traffic impact analysis, climate change analysis and mitigation strategy, and water supply assessment) and help to facilitate communications among a large team consisting of City staff, the applicant’s consultants, and the EMC Planning Group team including staff and multiple subconsultants.  To support the City’s consideration of the project, EMC Planning Group also prepared the project consideration packages for the Planning Commission and City Council.  Each package consisted of a staff report, resolutions and ordinances, project findings, mitigation monitoring program, and 26 exhibits that included the substantial evidence needed to validate the City’s decision-making. 

The program EIR was exhaustive.  Key issues included traffic and transportation, hydrology and storm water management, climate change, and loss of prime farmland.  Public services and utilities, air quality, and water supply were also important issues. The program EIR was structured to serve as a functional tool for tiering subsequent environmental analysis of individual projects within the specific plan area.  Because of the precedent-setting nature of the hydrology/storm water management and the climate change analysis components of the EIR, EMC Planning Group worked closely with City staff to craft an analysis approach that can be consistently used by the City going forward.

The proposed project required a sphere of influence amendment and annexation approvals from the Monterey County Local Agency Formation Commission.  To facilitate this process, EMC Planning Group prepared a complete annexation application package on behalf of the City and worked collaboratively with Local Agency Formation Commission staff to move the application and consideration process forward.  Both requests were unanimously approved.