Our Future
The Monterey County Planning Commission unanimously approved Rancho Cielo’s EIR and Master Plan at their September 8, 2010 meeting.
Rancho Cielo will continue to develop and expand the use of the one-hundred acre site to include an array of healthy, enriching activities for all Monterey County at-risk youth and their families. We are excited about the construction of new facilities that will increase the number of people we are able to serve. Thanks to our dedicated partners, donors and volunteers, we will be able to expand our educational and recreational offerings in response to the expressed needs of our community.
In addition to the ongoing development of existing programs, we have the following large-scale projects on the horizon:
Our Master Plan:
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Ted Taylor Vocational Center
We are in the “Public” phase of a Capital Campaign to raise the funds required to operate the Ted Taylor Vocational-Agriculture Center. Architectural and engineering plans are completed; campus infrastructure has been upgraded to accommodate the new structure (electrical, water and sewage); our EIR is completed, as mentioned; construction is expected to begin in 2017. We are excited to announce we officially broke ground April 8, 2017. Once completed, the Ted Taylor Vocational Center will offer training in support of Monterey County’s largest industry, Agriculture. The four wings of the structure will include:
- Automotive and tractor repair
- Metal fabrication and welding, irrigation and water solutions
- Agricultural Value Added Services, refrigeration, food safety
- Sustainable construction solutions
Ted Taylor was a maverick, a brilliant Ag Businessman, who was known for mentoring others in the field to become Ag Leaders themselves. He died too young, and the community wants to honor his legacy in this building and program to train Rancho Cielo youth in highly-paid, needed jobs in Agribusiness. We are also a feeder-program to Hartnell College. Our students would not attend Hartnell College without participating in a Rancho Cielo program first; not only do they lack their diploma, they lack the self-esteem to walk onto a college campus and realize that they deserve to be there. That is the transformation that Rancho Cielo facilitates.
Sports and Recreational Fields
Our Master Plan also includes future development for sports fields and a 3-hole golf course, designed by the late John Zoller, and possible agriculture fields as well.