12 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY october 3-9, 2024 www.montereycountynow.com The path to developing anything locally is littered with pitfalls and often unforeseen challenges, particularly if the proposed project is on the former Fort Ord. That being the case, sometimes plans change, as they did Sept. 19 when Seaside City Council approved an amendment to the plan for Campus Town, a proposed residential and commercial development, nearly a decade in the planning, on 123 acres in northern Seaside that promises to provide about 1,500 residential units, among other things. The amendment revises three pieces of the original plan, two of which are interconnected. The city is offering to extend its lease, indefinitely, to the Presidio of Monterey fire station—the station sits on city-owned land that was slated to become housing, and POM Fire was going to have to relocate. In turn, the city is offering the developer, KB Bakewell, a similar-sized parcel of city-owned land in exchange. Doing so, City Attorney Sheri Damon says, has two primary benefits. One is that the city’s new fire station, at the corner of Gigling Road and First Avenue, isn’t slated to open until sometime next year at the earliest, so keeping the POM station open will continue to provide seamless fire coverage for the existing military enclave until that happens. Another is that the Department of Defense, which leases the property from Seaside, was considering relocating the station further south to the shuttered Fort Ord chapel. Being able to remain in place indefinitely would allow DOD to not have to move forward anytime soon with the costly and time-consuming endeavor to relocate POM’s fire station. In turn, the city has also expressed interest in leasing the chapel from DOD to use as a cultural center that Damon envisions could be “an interpretive museum to reflect the diversity and military history in Seaside, and provide a home for our art collection,” which is currently housed at the Oldemeyer Center. As for the chapel itself, she says, “It is stunning inside.” Features include a stage. The other key amendment is that the plan originally envisioned residential uses for a small parcel that is owned by Monterey-Salinas Transit and is deed-restricted for transportation-related purposes. The amendment envisions that land will be acquired by the city from MST and turned into a “transit park” that will replace the plan’s original park site, which would then be slated for residential use. Exactly what a transit park would look like is somewhat undefined, but Damon envisions it could be a small multi-use field for things like soccer, a parking lot, e-bike charging stations and a bus stop. Such a use, she says, would be allowable under the property’s deed restrictions. Importantly, however, none of the envisioned agreements with DOD or MST have been finalized. MST General Manager Carl Sedoryk says his staff will be meeting with consultants in the next week to discuss the agency’s various properties on the former Fort Ord and come up with a vision of how to utilize them or, if they were to be sold, how to value them. Trading Places Changes to Seaside’s Campus Town plan mean Presidio of Monterey fire station can remain in place. By David Schmalz The City of Seaside had already extended a lease with the Presidio of Monterey for its fire station from 2023 to 2025. A new land swap in the works mean it can stay long-term. NEWS “[The chapel could] provide a home for our art collection.” DANIEL DREIFUSS
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