Oct. 5, 2009

A sign went up on the north side of Inter-Garrison Road between Central Campus and East Campus housing last month, announcing that the area will become the home of Monterey-Salinas Transit.

The transit agency has acquired about 24 acres of a 58-acre parcel owned by Monterey County.

The county Redevelopment Agency plans to subdivide the remaining 34 acres for sale to approximately a dozen developers in 1.5- to 2.5-acre parcels. That area is known as the Whispering Oaks Business Park and is designated for light industrial use in the Fort Ord master plan.

MST will relocate its headquarters, storage and maintenance operations to the property, and hopes to break ground on the first of three buildings next summer, according to Hunter Harvath, MST's assistant general manager.

The headquarters – what Harvath calls the "signature" building – will be constructed to LEED Silver standards. The three-story building will have a sunken entrance. Entry will be on the second-floor level to minimize what is visible from Inter-Garrison Road.

A 100-foot-wide buffer of native oak trees will remain on the property between Inter-Garrison Road and the development. The entire property will be heavily landscaped.

It will also be enclosed by a decorative fence – as required by the Department of Homeland Security – much like the fence that surrounds the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey.

A maintenance facility and a fuel building will complete the project, along with paved parking for 280 buses.

Harvath emphasized the environmentally friendly aspects of the project. Recycled water will be used to wash the buses, then that water will be used for landscaping. Photovoltaic cells will be placed on the roof of the maintenance building and will provide enough energy to power the operation.

Buses will enter and leave the yard via the Eighth Avenue cutoff to Imjin Parkway. Eventually, they will also go through the East Garrison development.

MST is working with CSUMB's Planning and Development staff on issues such as storm water runoff.

Nick Nichols of the county Redevelopment Agency says the implementation of the light industrial park is dependent on economic forces over the next several years.