Salinas City Council green lights new travel center
The Salinas City Council just gave the green light for a new travel center near the airport, hoping it will bring more money and jobs to the city.
Councilmembers unanimously approved the new Salinas Travel Center specific plan on Tuesday night.
A major issue for truckers is the lack of available parking spaces in the city’s existing truck stops.
“Horrible. No parking. At the truck stops, anyway,” said Audra Wengerd, a driver.
“Especially during the busy season, it’s real hard to get parking,” said Jose Garcia, another driver.
The new travel station will be located between the airport and Highway 101.
“This project has been a priority for years, thousands of staff hours on the part of the city,” said Steve McShane, a Salinas councilmember during Tuesday’s meeting.
The project is slated to have a Love’s gas station and a new Arby’s fast food restaurant. Developers also want to put an 80-room hotel nearby, along with fueling stations and a mechanics building. There will also be additional parking spaces.
“This is probably the single greatest private investment in the city this year,” said McShane. “It’s a big one. It’s not a police station, it’s not a library, it’s private money flowing into the city that’s not just going to create jobs, but will be done right.”
Other councilmembers say the new travel will help bring in needed revenue for the city as well as ease the impact on roads. Truckers, however, are just hopiong it is going to be enough for them.
“You got 700 or 800 trucks in here in a day at any given time during produce season. So it’s terrible. They need a lot more parking,” said Wengerd.
“Most likely it’s going to be more busy in the coming years, it all depends on changes on the government and local government,” said Garcia.
The travel center is not just going to be for truckers and trailers, it is open to all drivers. And development on that land won’t stop at the travel center, there are plans in the works for other future industrial buildings.
