Exactly a dozen years after Fort Ord shut down amidst a sea of hand-wringing and uncertainty, long-promised housing projects are now starting to displace the decrepit ghost town left in the wake of the military base’s closure. But change has brought contention.

Every one of the major redevelopment housing projects that’s been approved for the former-Fort Ord—Seaside Highlands, Marina’s University Villages and Marina Heights—have been the target of lawsuits challenging the projects’ approval processes or their lack of affordable housing. All these lawsuits have wrought expensive delays and polarized communities. Except one.

The East Garrison project, unanimously approved by the County Board of Supervisors last October, stands as the sole redevelopment project on the former Fort Ord that hasn’t been challenged in court. The East Garrison property sits adjacent to Reservation Road, just east of central Marina.

Next month, construction crews are likely to break ground on the project that has been in the works for four years. When completed, it promises to provide one of the County’s first communities planned entirely on New Urbanism principles that spurn sprawl in favor of higher density communities, and that embrace affordable housing.

Vincent Guarino, spokesman for the developer of the project (East Garrison Partners), says the project has been a model of a “whole different way of doing business.

“Sure it’s more complicated and more expensive,” Guarino says, “but I think what you’ll find as you dig further into the project is that what’s being put down on that land is totally different from other developments.”

For example, while the developers of Seaside Highlands and Marina Heights have championed the suburban approach of big homes on big lots, East Garrison has opted for a high-density building approach. It will build about 10 housing units per acre, a ratio that allows East Garrison to construct 1,400 housing units on a 244-acre piece of land that’s about the same size as Marina Heights, where 1,050 housing units will be built.

What’s more, unlike Marina Heights, which isn’t actually building any new affordable housing units but instead refurbishing some old Army residences to fulfill its City-mandated, low-income housing requirements, East Garrison is building smaller homes, intended to make all of them more affordable to people of all incomes.

While the bulk of other housing developments on the former Fort Ord are parceled into lot sizes surpassing 3,000 and 4,000 square feet, none of East Garrison’s housing units can be built on lots larger than 3,000 square feet.

“We’ve purposely designed [homes] at a cost that would be lower than conventional planning,” Guarino says. “We wanted to make them affordable by design.”

Nick Nichols of Monterey County Housing and Redevelopment Agency says this strategy produces a “strong potential that the units will be priced at a level affordable to existing workers and residents of Monterey County.”

Unlike University Villages in Marina, which has planned a big-box retail center surrounded by a large parking lot, the developers of East Garrison have opted for a tight-knit community design. Twenty-three old Army buildings will be refurbished on the East Garrison site and transformed into artist loft spaces, giving artists a relatively affordable place to live and work.

In addition, the developer will put up $2.3 million to help pay for the construction of a fire station in conjunction with the Salinas Rural Fire District, as well as $1.2 million to build a new library and a sheriff’s substation.

While distinct in many ways, East Garrison does share some similarities with other former-Fort Ord projects, particularly when it comes to details governing the financing of the project. As with University Villages, the developer at East Garrison is a team of companies that will eventually buy half-developed properties from themselves to finish and sell to the public for profit.

What’s more, 244 acres of land are being sold by Monterey County to the developers for $1.5 million, which translates into the spectacularly cheap price of $6,147 per acre—cheaper by far than what developers at University Villages and Marina Heights are paying for their properties.

According to Guarino, the primary justification for the bargain price at East Garrison is that the site’s market-rate homes, because of their limited size, won’t sell for nearly as much money as the larger homes in other former-Fort Ord projects.

Guarino says the developers have already spent nearly $15 million on pre-construction planning, much of it to pay for design consultants and also to plan for the historic preservation and rehabilitation of some old Army warehouses and mess halls into artist lofts.

On top of these costs is money for the fire station, and a library—infrastructure improvements that neither of the Marina developments are incurring.

However, one cost that isn’t being borne by the developers is excess legal fees. Guarino says the project has thus-far avoided a lawsuit because developers have managed to weave all stakeholders’ desires into the planning process, “which doesn’t mean just giving those people lip service.”

Marty Manson, president of Arts Habitat, which has worked with the developers for years on the project, agrees. “They had a vision that’s broader and more expansive that just getting the property and buildings homes,” Manson says. “Compared to the developments happening all around them, that makes them very unique.”