[slop]

I' m glad to see a bunch of you are going to give East Garrison one last ride on Saturday before they close the access there. I"ll try to join you. On another note I am the President of the Monterey Off Road Trail Association (Morca) and we are trying to get any of you who live near Monterey and Salinas to join us. We are doing trail work out at Fort Ord, holding a Family Ride Day in March, and am going to help out at the Sea Otter this year. I need local riders to step up and join us. The closing of East Garrison is just the beginning. More horses are showing up on the trails every week. No, I don't want to shoot horses and the equestrian types aren't necessarily bad people, but if we want to influence any trail management decisions we must be organized. We are building a good relationship with the BLM (good folks by the way) and right now we are the ones they are listening to in regards to MTB issues. Get Involved... go to morcamtb.org...join us.

thanks, Peter

 

[addictionms]

"Monterey County supervisors officially handed over some 635 acres to the East Garrison Partners development consortium"

that just does not sound good for the longevity of single track at Fort Ord....how much of the total park is 635 acres?

Jim

 

[gobike]

I'm being selfish here

But I've had a lot of great times at East Garrison, and I've loved finishing up my ride and "cooling down" by exploring all the cool structures out there. It's too bad we are going to lose this. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of literature readily accessible on Fort Ord either (atleast that I'm aware of). A lot of history is going to be lost and I'm not happy about that...:madmax:
Fort Ord is a large area, and there's plenty of singletrack. I just hope it stays that way for the forseeable future...

 

[FoggyGoggles]

"Monterey County supervisors officially handed over some 635 acres to the East Garrison Partners development consortium"

that just does not sound good for the longevity of single track at Fort Ord....how much of the total park is 635 acres?

Jim

Don't panic. 635 acres is about 1 square mile. That is just 2% of Fort Ord's ~28000 acres which includes all the unexploded ordinance area. Looks like Trails 14,15,16 and 19 are at risk. Fort Ord junkies, is that bad? I don't know, I've never been there, I'm just reading the thread, looking at maps and doing some high school math.

 

[DMFT]

It's all good...........

..........for now.
- No major trails will be lost yet. The 1st phase will be built mostly where existing structures already stand. The 2nd phase is what's gonna suck. Then there's Del Rey Oaks looking for a chunk of the South side of F.O., Seaside want's some, Marina want's more.... I'd like to see a Moratorium put on new building in Monterey County so maybe it will dawn on some folks that the current infrastructure & water supply can't handle things as they are now...

 

[Joelster21]

Where do all these people get jobs at? I know there is a need for field workers in Salinas, but with all this building is there no end to it? The powers that be should put a stop to the building, however, I think the ARMY just wants to get rid of the land ASAP so it is no longer responsible for it. The BLM has a good chunk of FT ORD tied up which is good, but there is still a good portion that the city of Seaside, Marina and Del Ray Oaks either own or will be given rights to as soon as ordance disposal and environmental issues are taken care of by the ARMY. This all means more congestion on Ft Ord and maybe even problems on down the road with crime and drugs with all the low income housing. Sad day.

 

[Carl Hungus]

Where do all these people get jobs at? I know there is a need for field workers in Salinas, but with all this building is there no end to it? The powers that be should put a stop to the building, however, I think the ARMY just wants to get rid of the land ASAP so it is no longer responsible for it. The BLM has a good chunk of FT ORD tied up which is good, but there is still a good portion that the city of Seaside, Marina and Del Ray Oaks either own or will be given rights to as soon as ordance disposal and environmental issues are taken care of by the ARMY. This all means more congestion on Ft Ord and maybe even problems on down the road with crime and drugs with all the low income housing. Sad day.

This is a dicey subject to begin discussing and a really complex one as well. First off, when I've ridden at the Ord I've parked at East Garrison because, coming from Santa Cruz it seems like that is the easiest access. So basically this sucks for me. BUT saying that, this whole area (Monterey Co., Santa Cruz Co., really the whole freakin state) is in desperate need of some lower priced housing in my opinion. Do you think any of the people that work in the hotels and restaurants that all the tourists love in Monterey, PG and Carmel can afford anything within a twenty mile radius? Nevermind, the hospitality sector, you have teachers and firefighters driving all the way over from South County to the peninsula for work. If this really is a well thought out housing plan, not another Seaside Highlands, I'm all for it.

 

[Joelster21]

While I agree that California, especially this area, is in need of some afforadable housing, I think the houses being built up there on Ord will sell for higher and higher prices in just a few short months since there are so many people that want to move closer to their work here in Monterey county. I don't know the ins and outs of the whole situtation so I may have over simplified my opinion a bit, but I know of two areas within a five mile radius of EG that are being developed. One for low income housing (off of Imjin) and the other is the huge complex that they are building off of HWY 1 in Marinia near CSUMB (University place). These areas will bring in even more people that can't afford the housing here in the area. I think there needs to be a larger strategic plan in place for the whole area rather than the dollar driven train of adding more hotels, shopping centers, and tourist stuff. It is a catch-22, you are damned if you do and damned if you don't. I am not sure what the solution is, but all I know it sucks that the history and tradition of the EG is being destroyed in order to put in row houses and apartments. My selfish side comes out knowing that there will be just a little bit less "country" (borrowing the term from my rural Michgan roots) to go riding on without having to deal with more people. With this housing area, you know there will be a ton more people to deal with roaming Ft Ord doing good and BAD stuff. I didn't mean to come off as so cold hearted.

 

[Carl Hungus]

Yeah, no worries. I don't think you came off as being cold hearted. Like I said before, it's a tough but possibly inevitable situation. With its proximity to the coast we're talking about an extremely valuable piece of land here. People are going to want to live there. As I understand it, the neighboring communities(as well as developers) have been waiting for over ten years now to see some development out there. Were this another high priced development, ala the aforementioned Seaside Highlands, I wouldn't support it. But based on the article, this APPEARS to be a fairly well thought out, livable community that is anti-sprawl. As far as what it actually becomes, time will tell I suppose. I too will miss cruising through the historic buildings and the "ghost town" feel. The loss of public land always sucks, but like I said, in this case it might be inevitable. Anyone with more knowledge of the situation want to jump in here?

 

[fat_weasel]

Yeah, I've heard people refer to Fort Ord as "the most valuable real estate in the country." Brownfields and asbestos included, I guess. One of the basic problems with development in Monterey County (and probably elsewhere these days) is that a lot of the development plans got put together at a time when it was reasonable for people to buy new homes as investments rather than residences...this is what led to all the Seaside Highlands houses selling for like 1.5 million. Buy a house, let it appreciate for a few years as the market keeps skyrocketing, and then sell it eventually and clean up. So everybody got on the bandwagon with plans to develop housing in the Marina/Seaside area with hopes of making lots of money. This isn't particularly good for the economy of the county itself, as most of the money is changing hands outside of the county, but according to conventional wisdom it's better than nothing.

Now that the market is cooling down, it's becoming obvious that there aren't many people moving to Marina/Seaside/Salinas that can afford a 3-bedroom house with a 2-car garage as their primary residence. And like Joelster pointed out, not many people already living in the county have jobs that can pay for that kind of thing...the two main industries in Monterey County are agriculture and tourism, neither of which pay very well. Once all the development really gets started, I suppose we can add construction, which has the same problem. But Monterey County is too far from Silicon Valley or SF for commuters to buy homes there, and there's no local industry creating well-paying career jobs for people, so if the real estate market continues to cool off there's a good chance there could be a lot of empty McMansions sitting around in a while.