Monterey County supervisors today likely will give the go-ahead to what may well be the largest development ever built in county-run territory -- the 1,470-home East Garrison project at Fort Ord.
A crush of more than 800 pages of reports and backup materials will be before supervisors as they decide whether to approve the 244-acre project that also calls for an arts district with live-work studios and a town center with commercial and civic buildings.
With last year's approval of the 4,000-home Rancho San Juan project north of Salinas in doubt on two fronts -- a November ballot challenge and the county proposing a much smaller project -- East Garrison "will be the largest one," project planner Mike Novo said.
Owing to the proposed arts district, which would contain about two dozen renovated, historic Army buildings, a youth camp and other community uses nearby, the East Garrison development hasn't spurred the kind of heated debate that often surrounds land-use projects.
"I think there is support for the project," said Chris Fitz, executive director of LandWatch Monterey County. "LandWatch believes East Garrison is the appropriate place for growth -- at some point."
Novo said criticism of the proposal has been muted, though some people have attacked it as "leapfrog" development and a big traffic generator. But the county Planning Commission praised the project with a unanimous recommendation for approval.
Fitz said the county should consider delaying construction at East Garrison while other large Fort Ord projects in Seaside and Marina go forward.
The site, on a bluff top off Reservation Road, is fairly isolated from schools, and the project could strain road capacities, Fitz said.
"It makes sense, but the question is when," he said. "Perhaps it should be in an urban reserve."
The county has been working for almost a decade on redevelopment plans for its Fort Ord lands -- a very long march to today's showdown meeting on East Garrison.
The three-phase project is the fourth major redevelopment project at Fort Ord along, along with Seaside Highlands in Seaside and the Marina Heights and University Villages subdivisions in Marina.
The 380-home Seaside Highlands project is built out, while the two Marina projects, which call for a total of about 2,300 new homes, face pending court challenges.
Novo said East Garrison gives the county a good location to provide sizable numbers of low-cost homes, which the state requires of all cities and counties.
"We need to meet our regional housing needs," he said. "This is one of the better sites to provide housing, and we're doing it."
Of the 1,470 housing units planned at East Garrison, 280 would be price-controlled for very-low, low- and moderate-income households, 140 would be for "work-force" income households and 70 would be "carriage" units.
A project financial study by a county consultant pegged the price range for 940 market-rate homes at $663,000 to $703,000 with 140 market-rate condominiums priced about $421,000. Another 84 townhouses for moderate-income households would be priced about $236,500, the report says.
A total of 196 apartments would be for very-low- and low-income tenants.
The county and East Garrison Partners -- a development group made up of Woodman Development, William Lyon Homes and Urban Community Partners -- wrapped up long negotiations over business terms just two weeks ago.
The East Garrison developers were chosen by county supervisors in February 2003. But negotiations dragged on for so long that the developers this spring asked supervisors to take over the talks.
The financial report says East Garrison Partners' development costs will reach $153 million, excluding land payments, and sales of the market-rate parcels will generate $221 million.
The report says total land payments to the county would reach $51 million (based on today's dollar value), including an initial $1.5 million payment, and profit-sharing payments through 2011.
That's worth more to the county than the reuse value of the land pegged by the financial study at $19 million.
Other facets of the project call for:
• the county to allocate 470 acre-feet of its annual Fort Ord water allocation of 560 acre-feet to East Garrison.
• a land-use plan designed to create "a walkable community" with a civic-commercial town center with a library and transit center.
• twenty-three old Army buildings, including a chapel, to be renovated and become part of the arts district's 114 live-work units.
