SOLEDAD — The City of Soledad is moving forward with the Soledad Event Center project by approving an additional $8,765 for contract planning services with EMC Planning Group Inc.
The City Council originally approved $65,510 for staff support and environmental services related to the Soledad Event Center project that was proposed by the Bill Massa Company on Jan. 4. In talking with Project Manager Tammy Massa and staff who conducted an additional analysis, they found that more work was needed and the project amount would rise to $74,085.
The additional funding is due to the increase in proposed uses for the Soledad Event Center site and the funding would be through the Bill Massa Company as a reimbursement agreement. The Bill Massa Company would like to hold multiple daily events during the morning and evening, which were not in the original proposal and were not studied in the traffic report. A revised traffic report will include the new activities and would be submitted once completed.
The Soledad Event Center project idea came about in 2015 and proposed the construction on the former Sequoia Lumber Property. According to the city staff report, the proposal includes the renovation to the existing buildings and construction of new structures capable of holding sales, swap meets, trade shows and weekly markets.
The project experienced a delay to consider potential traffic impacts to the city and potential costs to be borne by the project. As a result, the Bill Massa Company hired a traffic engineer to evaluate the potential impacts.
