East Salinas makes way for 70 new affordable housing units
Behind the blue Culturas Hidalgo Y Oaxaca restaurant at 467 E. Market St. sits an old storage facility.
The storage facility will soon be demolished to make way for roughly 70 rental units. The nearby grass area is also being considered for parking or possibly for part of the new building.
Salinas city officials and developers say these units will house individuals and families of low to very-low income.
Councilman Orlando Osornio, who represents areas in East Salinas, says city officials were immediately on board with developers when they were approached about the multi-story housing complex.
“We’ve never thought about going up, it’s usually only outwards. But when you think about projects like these, that is something important because we have to maximize how we are building,” Osornio said.
Osornio believes having new rental units will have a positive impact on the surrounding community.
“It is close to transportation, the freeway, grocery stores and fresh foods," Osornio said. "Now with a behavioral clinic and a clinic, that will be on Sanborn, [residents are] going to be in close proximity to services."
Not your ordinary housing development
Osornio says the objective of the housing project is to improve the quality of life for residents and to help create more job resources and opportunities.
The site is a mixed-use property with goals to include biking storage for tenants who don't have cars, a commercial space for a kitchen business incubator, a women's business center, and an overall environmentally sustainable, long-lasting, low-energy-use building.
El Pajaro Community Development Corporation, a Watsonville organization, is helping developers create the state of the art commercial kitchen at the complex.
"People are able to go into the kitchen and start their business from there, cutting up and shipping off food and spices all around the world" Osornio said. "This gets them certified to be able to handle food."
A clean start
Planning and designs for the new building are underway. But first, the area will be cleaned up.
New Way Homes (NWH), the non-profit funding the new project, received an award of $861,000 from the California Department of Toxic Substances Control to complete site cleanup and soils remediation that will pave the way for the construction.
Organizations like NWH partner with the state to clean up sites that have been sitting with contamination, particularly in lower income neighborhoods, and make them suitable for residential development.
"It takes two years to get a site approved for cleanup," Development Manager Serena Collins said. "In our case, it's a small amount of contamination based on past uses of motor oil and paint over decades of time.
Collins says the contamination does not pose a major environmental threat, and the area will start being cleaned out within the next year before construction can begin.
"We see the extra work involved in a project like this as environmental justice work, and we’re thrilled to be a part of combining environmental cleanup with creating desperately needed affordable housing,” New Way Homes President Sibley Simon said.
When will Salinas see the new apartments?
Collins says residents can expect to see the new building sometime in the next couple of years as design and planning continues.
Site cleanup is expected to take place next summer and construction could take between 12 to 18 months depending on the size of the final project design.
"We are happy to be collaborating with the city of Salinas, who has been really great to work with in moving the project along," Collins said.
This article originally appeared on Salinas Californian: 70 new affordable housing units to be constructed in East Salinas
