City of Salinas, CA

08/26/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 08/26/2024 10:36

Amazon Project: Improvements to Abbott St. & Harris Rd.

Amazon Project: Improvements to Abbott St. & Harris Rd.

Published on August 26, 2024

Improvements may be coming soon to Abbott St. And Harris Rd., like road widening, traffic signal improvements, and utility work. The Salinas Ag-Industrial Center Specific Plan (Plan) was approved by the City Council in 2010 along with associated environmental documents. The Plan requires the first development project in the Salinas Ag-Industrial Center (SAIC) to construct all backbone infrastructure necessary to support the entire 257-acres of the Plan area including internal roadways. Consistent with the Plan, the City of Salinas requires off-site improvements listed below as part of the proposed Amazon warehouse facility project on Harris Road:

  • Abbott Street: Widening to a 96 ft Major Arterial section
  • Harris Road: 65 ft. - 81 ft. Signal improvements and road Improvements including undergrounding utilities
  • New sewer, water and storm drain lines installed on Harris with trunk extensions for future use
  • Installation of new domestic well site and expanded water distribution lines
  • Dayton Street: Extended 1400+ feet as a two-lane street to intersect with "A Street" (one of the new streets that will run through the project site)
  • Highway 101 at Abbott Street: Installation of a ramp metering signal on the southbound onramp to control traffic entering the Highway

How does this project benefit our community?

The Amazon project is a proposed 5-story distribution warehouse, over 3 million square feet in size. It will be an advanced robotics fulfillment center that is projected to bring hundreds of jobs or more to our community. In addition to job creation and off-site improvements, other economic benefits to Salinas include:

  • Sales tax revenue
  • Property tax revenue
  • Employment Opportunities
  • Installation of required backbone infrastructure to facilitate future development within the SAIC, which has an economic benefit to Salinas

How did we get here?

The Salinas Ag-Industrial Center Specific Plan (Plan) was approved by the Salinas City Council in January 2010 to allow for the development of 257-acres of land into what is referred to as the Salinas Ag-Industrial Center (SAIC). The Plan's objectives are aimed at strengthening and enhancing the City's agricultural-related industries, while also encouraging diversity within the agricultural-industrial cluster and providing flexibility to adapt to changing market conditions.

Since the Plan was approved over 14 years ago, no development has occurred, largely due to costs associated with building necessary backbone infrastructure. The 2022 estimates calculate the cost of the backbone infrastructure required to support both Phase 1 and Phase 2 development in the Plan area to be over $69 million dollars, making any future development in the Plan area financially infeasible for many developers or the property owner.

The implementation of specific plans is typically phased over an extended period of time. For this reason, provisions for amendments are provided in specific plans as part of implementation to address future, unanticipated needs for modification. The SAIC Plan provides for both administrative and discretionary (requiring Council consideration and approval) amendments. To date, the property owner, UniKool Partners and the applicant, Scannell Properties, have requested two Type 2 Major Administrative amendments to facilitate development of the SAIC. The first amendment request (SPA 2021-001) in October 2021, was to expand the scope of permissible uses within the Plan area to permit non-agriculturally related warehousing and wholesale distribution land uses within the Specific Plan area, while retaining the agriculturally related or serving requirements for most other uses of the Specific Plan area. The second amendment (SPA 2024-001) on May 8, 2024, modified street sections to relocate public utilities from within bioswales. Both amendments were approved through an administrative process that is provided for in the Plan; the City's action to amend the Plan is consistent with the Plan as originally approved. Should additional amendments to the Plan come forward in the future which do not meet the Plan's requirements for administrative consideration, those amendments will be brought forward for City Council consideration.

What's the City's role in approving projects like this one?

When a specific plan and other long-range planning initiatives are being developed, the City is looking at common factors like land use and traffic impacts.

The primary role of the City is to facilitate future development, but the City is not a developer. When an application is submitted to develop within a plan area, the City reviews the application and supporting documents to ensure it aligns with the allowable uses in the plan and the zoning code. The City will also evaluate if there are additional requirements that need to be met in order to proceed with the project, in addition to any required permits, fees, and changes to the proposal that may be needed throughout the development and construction process.

In the context of the proposed Amazon Warehouse:

Land Use - The primary objectives of the Specific Plan are establishing opportunity sites for new and relocating ag-related industries for Salinas and to promote associated industrial job creation and retention. The Plan provides 257-acres for agricultural industry expansion and cluster development with focus on food storage, warehousing, food processing, packaging suppliers and other ag support uses. Since the Plan was adopted in 2010, the agriculture industry has significantly changed, as well as wholesale distribution with the rise of e-commerce, globalization, and the pandemic. While the Plan as adopted by the City Council in 2010 was focused on industrial agricultural businesses, the 2021 amendment (SPA 2021-001) now allows for wholesale warehouse distribution businesses without the connection to agriculture. The SPA 2021-001 will help facilitate development in the Plan area, which has an economic benefit for the Salinas community.

Agricultural Conservation and Protection - In recognition of the importance of the agricultural industry to Monterey County, as a part of the City's original approval process in 2010, the Plan required the UniKool Partners to take action to protect agricultural resources. To directly address the loss of farmland that would result from development of the Plan area, the UniKool Partners dedicated an agricultural conservation easement over and conveyed title of 196.6 acres of prime row crop ag land to the Ag Land Trust. This action protects the 196.6 acres conveyed to the Ag Land Trust as agricultural land for the benefit of growing row crops. Additionally, in recognition of the proximity of the Plan area to agricultural land, the Plan area is surrounded by an ag-buffer easement which is designed to protect the neighboring agricultural fields from the impacts of development within the Plan area. The ag-buffer easements are permanent and have the effect of creating an urban limit line to prevent urbanization of adjacent agricultural lands.

Traffic Impacts -The Plan and associated environmental review require development within the Plan area to mitigate the impacts which are anticipated to come from their projects, including impacts on traffic. All development within the Plan area will be required to pay fees for their anticipated impacts on the City's roadways, as well as regional roadways. This includes the payment of City traffic fees and TAMC (Transportation Agency of Monterey County).

Because of the increased traffic that the Amazon project would bring, there is a requirement that they make specific traffic improvements consistent with what is outlined in the Plan, like the ones listed in the beginning of this article. As the first user within the Plan area, the Amazon project will be required to fund the improvement to convert the Highway 68 Westbound ramps and Spreckels Blvd intersection to an all-way stop before construction may begin. This improvement will be completed before the warehouse and distribution facility can be opened. The Amazon project will also be required to prepare a Frontage Road Preliminary Design Study which includes identification of a First Phase Frontage Road project as identified by TAMC and will be required to design, fund, and construct a metering signal on the southbound Abbott Street on-ramp to US Highway 101. All of these conditions are intended to help prevent traffic impacts on neighboring businesses and industries, particularly, the neighboring agricultural businesses, as a means to avoid congestion and disruption to the flow of traffic around the Plan area.

What's next?

The process with development of the SAIC land for commercial use, in addition to the required offsite infrastructure improvements, can be a complex process. The land in the SAIC lacks the infrastructure needed for new development, such as roads, sewer systems, water lines, and utilities. Installing this infrastructure can be a major undertaking that can result in delays and the possibility of future Plan amendments. If amendments are required that do not meet the Plan's requirements for administrative consideration, those amendments will be brought forward for City Council consideration. Given the complexity, the project timelines from Amazon and permit issuance may be fluid, but the off-site improvements might begin as early as this month, with the structure/onsite work to begin in September and October. This multi-phase project is projected to take several years to complete.