Salinas >> A chunk of land in the center of Salinas was acquired by the Big Sur Land Trust on Wednesday, marking the first step in fulfilling the city’s vision of a multi-benefit green space for Salinas residents.

“Just moments ago, we got word that escrow has closed … we’re now proud owners,” said Jeannette Tuitele-Lewis, president and CEO of the Big Sur Land Trust, in a press conference Wednesday morning.

With the shallow Carr Lake glistening in the background, Tuitele-Lewis made the announcement heralding the landmark acquisition that will bring Salinas closer to having its long-sought “central park.”

“It’s 73 acres — 63 acres are in ag production and the other 10 are for the outbuildings and two homes,” said Jeff Powers, Land Trust director of land stewardship.

The parcel of land, which makes up a small portion of the Carr Lake Basin, will stay in production and be leased to an adjacent family farm business for the next four to five years, including leasing the residences and maintaining the outbuildings, while the nonprofit conducts studies and analysis of the parcel to determine future use.

The Big Sur Land Trust, the city of Salinas, community partners and residents will establish a long-term plan that will include the outcomes of scientific and engineering studies for floodplain and habitat improvements, so the public can safely use the land.

Building Healthy Communities, the Monterey County Department of Health, the Watershed Institute at CSU Monterey Bay, and Community Housing Improvement Systems and Planning Association, a nonprofit community housing developer, make up the core community partners group that has been working with Land Trust board members and staff.

The core group will be guiding the Land Trust in its efforts to reach out to additional Salinas-based organizations and residents to design the community engagement process.

That process will ensure voices of city residents are central in determining a vision and establishing priorities for long-term development of parkland on the property. The Land Trust also believes the approach provides a sense of collective ownership and success.

Alfred Diaz-Infante, president and CEO of CHISPA, said there are children who have never been to the beach but when programs take them out of their element and to the ocean, the experience opens up a new world for them. It can be the beginning of thinking about possibilities in higher education or even future jobs.

Diaz-Infante believes that with the acquisition of Carr Lake, future Salinas residents will have the open space and natural environment close by to explore, learn and possibly spark interest in something else that may change the direction of their lives.

“It’s about building a healthy community and how space, or the lack of it, affects that community,” said Diaz-Infante.

The acquisition is part of a larger 480-acre area that makes up the usually dry lakebed which, historically, fluctuated between being a shallow lake or swampy wetlands before it was drained in the early 1900s and dedicated to farming.

Before Carr Lake became farmland, it was the largest of seven lakes that captured water from an upper watershed beginning at Fremont Peak. Three major creeks, Gabilan Creek, Natividad Creek and Alisal Creek, flow through Carr Lake.

Now the lake, which is an important component of a regional flood control system, empties into a reclamation ditch which channels the water to Tembladero Slough and eventually the Monterey Bay.

Ikeda Farms Partnership sold the 73-acre parcel for $3.95 million to the Land Trust with funding provided by California State Coastal Conservancy, the California Natural Resources Agency River Parkways Program, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Monterey Peninsula Foundation and the Barnet Segal Charitable Trust.

The Hibino and Higashi families own and continue to farm what makes up the remaining 407 acres of the basin.

Transforming the Ikeda property into part of a well-designed park project that will include a restoration strategy featuring wetlands and a more natural system for flood management is part of the Land Trust goal, along with providing managed access with viewing platforms, a restoration demonstration site, walking paths to provide observation of the cultivation of native plants, and the opportunity to use the site as a field lab for students.

“With our first acquisition in an urban landscape, we are celebrating a significant moment in the Land Trust’s 39-year history of providing and caring for places where people and nature thrive,” said Tuitele-Lewis. “Today we’ve taken the initial step toward transforming this property into an asset for the community that will help address the lack of parks and open space. We are especially excited to begin working with residents, community groups and city leaders to co-create a multi-benefit central park that reflects the heart and soul of Salinas.”

The Land Trust will work with Salinas and community members to create a mechanism for public ownership and management of the Carr Lake property over the long term.

For more information, or to submit an idea for Carr Lake, send an email to [email protected].

James Herrera can be reached at 831-726-4344.