City and MST present draft plans to activate Salinas Intermodal Transportation Center; residents seek more outreach and safety fixes

City planning staff and Monterey Salinas Transit (MST) on June 11 presented draft existing-conditions and opportunities memoranda for the Salinas Intermodal Transportation Center (ITC)—recently retitled Salinas Heritage Park by city council—and a related MST study on relocating the county transit center and implementing rapid bus service on Salinas corridors.

Yesenia Segovia, assistant planner with the City of Salinas, summarized earlier planning work—citing the 2015 downtown vibrancy plan, the 2017 memorandum with the Transportation Agency for Monterey County (TAMC), and draft memoranda prepared in 2025—and described additional outreach that staff conducted in April and early May, including one-on-one stakeholder meetings and a May 11 community workshop. Segovia said staff collected roughly 360 online survey responses during the first outreach round and are analyzing feedback to incorporate into final memoranda; the historic resources board requested additional outreach before formalizing recommendations.

Segovia highlighted opportunities identified in the draft opportunities memo: improved wayfinding and branding for the ITC, better passenger amenities (restrooms, covered waiting areas), coordinated schedules with Monterey Salinas Transit to improve transfers, and use of the ITC’s mixed‑use zoning for activation, including food vendors, park features and potential housing. She noted current parking at the ITC is underutilized—about 17% occupied at peak—and that the site is perceived as historically valuable but faces safety and unhoused-persons-related security concerns.

Michelle Overmyer, director of planning and innovation at MST, presented the agency’s rapid bus and transit center relocation study. Overmyer said the existing Salinas Transit Center serves about 3,400 riders on an average weekday, operates nine gates and 19 routes, and is showing capacity limits. MST narrowed five initial candidate locations to three: (1) the ITC itself, (2) a surface lot on Bridal between Church and Lincoln, and (3) a privately owned John Street site near Chase/Starbucks. All three sites were modeled to accommodate 12 gates (with two gates capable of handling 60-foot articulated buses) and include improved bike and pedestrian amenities; MST said the study is funded by a Caltrans planning grant with local match from MST, the City of Salinas and Taylor Farms.

For corridor work, MST presented two alternatives carried forward for more detailed engineering: side-running dedicated bus lanes (the public’s top-ranked preference in the initial survey) and an enhanced existing-conditions option that upgrades bus stops and intersection treatments without full dedicated lanes. Overmyer said MST will analyze travel time, road safety, parking impacts and benefits to priority populations before presenting findings in round 2 outreach, likely in July or August.

Public commenters and several commissioners urged better and broader outreach, transparency about projected construction and operating costs, and stronger pedestrian safety measures at the ITC and on Market Street, where residents said crossings feel unsafe for seniors, children and people with mobility devices. Peter Casavan, speaking for a downtown stakeholder group, argued the draft documents did not sufficiently incorporate the downtown vibrancy plan’s community vision and asked the commission to continue the hearing until community representatives could present their proposals.

MST staff said the agency had distributed outreach materials through event flyering, social media, a GovDelivery newsletter and in-person distribution at Salinas Day and other events but acknowledged there is room to improve how meeting dates and opportunities are publicized. Overmyer said MST is continuing technical evaluations, will publish cost estimates and will return for additional public feedback as the study progresses.

Commissioners asked MST to revisit whether the current site could be expanded, to confirm that design guidelines will allow buses to navigate existing roundabouts, and to return with cost estimates and more detailed outreach plans. The commission did not act on any relocation decision during the meeting; MST characterized the relocation as a planning-stage proposal requiring further study and funding identification before any construction.