The East Garrison project headed for county approval today presents some exciting prospects for relatively affordable housing in a well-designed community. If Monterey County officials can stay on top of the complexities and translate the paperwork into reality, it could become a model for local development.
The 1,470 housing units overlooking the Salinas Valley are to include 280 price-controlled units for very low-, low- and moderate-income households. It also includes 140 units for "work-force" households, wage earners overwhelmed by the astronomical housing prices on the Peninsula -- people like teachers, police officers, even professors working at nearby CSU-Monterey Bay.
More than 60 percent of the houses would be market rate, but the latest calculations indicate they, too, will be relatively affordable. Through a combination of small lots and relatively small structures, the developer is predicting condo prices of $421,000 and free-standing, market rate homes starting at $663,000. Though such prices would produce gasps in most places, they amount to bargains in these pricey parts.
We're hoping that the talk of $236,500 townhouses for moderate-income families doesn't disappear when construction actually begins.
Helping to keep the opposition to a mild hum rather than the usual roar, the development team of Woodman Development, William Lyon Homes and Urban Community Partners is taking a "new urbanist" approach. That means housing clusters in a walkable community, including a town center, an arts district and other amenities making it more like a little town than just another giant subdivision.
Among the concerns is that it's such a big project--four times larger than the Seaside Highlands development on the other side of Fort Ord--and that it will be completed in phases, with some of the amenities coming in the late stages. If market conditions change, the developers could return to the Board of Supervisors to scale back their promises. If that happens, it could become just another subdivision, a leapfrog development at that.
Among the developers' representatives is well-known land-use lawyer Tony Lombardo, who has managed over the years to finesse more than his share of concessions from county officials. With the county's understaffed development bureaucracy about to undergo a major reorganization that could leave it even more vulnerable to politics, it is important that the supervisors tie up every loose end before the vote.
It also is important that the county and other jurisdictions work together to help the struggling Monterey Peninsula school system get good schools built to accommodate East Garrison and the major projects planned for Marina's portion of Fort Ord.
If the various interests can work together rather than pick it apart, the East Garrison project could set a standard for Fort Ord reuse while providing potential homebuyers with some hope.
