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From 1917 until it closed in 1993, Fort Ord, California, operated as the training ground for troops who served in five major wars and a number of lesser conflicts. With as many as 20,000 military personnel staffing it at any given time, Fort Ord served as the primary economic engine for the Monterey Peninsula and for the Salinas Valley. The closure of the base in 1993 dealt a blow to the local economy from which it is still recovering.

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Today, California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB)--founded in 1994 as the 21st campus of what is now the 23-campus California State University System (CSU)--occupies approximately 1,300 acres of the former Army base. The university has replaced the Army as one of the leading economic development drivers on the Peninsula, pumping over $100 million into the Marina, Seaside, Salinas, and Monterey local economies in 2003 alone. Signs of economic development have started to appear. New roads created for the anticipated growth of planned residential communities and anticipated businesses surround the barracks and abandoned properties.

Both the founding president and provost of CSUMB accepted the challenge to transform an abandoned military base where learning was focused on battle and survival into a university committed to learning based on service--and in doing so to create one of the few entirely new universities of the West.

Artifacts of the Army's 76-year history are gradually decomposing as many of the base's old, temporary wooden barracks, mess halls, jails, munitions bunkers, and underground utilities--erected at the outbreak of World War II to last five years and still standing after 60--fall into disrepair, while others are being renovated for educational and civilian uses and new facilities are constructed on the sites where Army recruits learned to soldier.

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Set amidst abandoned Army buildings, the campus can seem bleak to incoming students, but the school is building new facilities, remodeling Army buildings, and using technology to house and serve a diverse group of first-generation college students. This article will describe how CSUMB faced the challenge of converting the buildings and land use of a former military base into a residential university environment.

CONVERSION

On July 8, 1994, the United States Department of Defense authorized conveyance of approximately 1,350 acres of the former Fort Ord military installation to the CSU System. This portion of the Fort had an assessed value of approximately $750 million worth of land, buildings, and infrastructure. CSUMB opened its doors to 650 students for the first time in August 1995 after only eight months of planning and preparation.

The university now enrolls approximately 3,570 full-time students--a number that should grow to 8,500 by 2015. Students, faculty, and staff live, eat, learn, and work in 60 renovated Army buildings on more than 1,000 acres (the university is still waiting for the Army to add about 300 more acres to the campus). CSUMB has converted old Army family housing into apartments and houses for students, staff, and faculty and continues to construct dorms to create a residential campus.

In collaboration with CSU and local reuse authorities comprised of the leadership of the surrounding communities, the university was divided into three areas: the East Campus, predominately residential; the Central Campus, naturalized open space; and the West Campus, the most developed area.

On East Campus, the university foundation manages 1,253 housing units located in a residential area two miles east of the West Campus. This residential area is divided into three sections: Frederick Park (CSUMB student apartment housing), Schoonover Park I, and Schoonover Park II.

Schoonover Park I contains 600 units reserved for renting to CSUMB employees, employees of certain other institutions (known as Educational Partners), and CSUMB upper-division students. Schoonover Park II contains single-family and townhouse units. Central Campus has been designated as a natural habitat; new university facilities will not be built on this section of the Ord property. The West Campus serves as the primary location for academic and future residential development.

COMPLICATED CONSULTATION WITH THE COMMUNITY

None of these changes happened without extensive and complicated consultation. Following the announcement of the base closure at Fort Ord, the Fort Ord Reuse Group (FORG) was organized in 1992 to begin planning the initial reuse plan, which was approved in 1993.

In 1994 the Fort Ord Reuse Authority (FORA) was established under Senate Bill 899, empowering specific local agencies in Monterey County to create an authority to prepare, adopt, finance, and implement a plan for the future use and development of the territory occupied by the former Fort Ord military installation.

FORA oversees 28,000 acres--approximately 44 square miles--with terrain that varies from gently rolling hills to a beach four-and-a-half-miles long. The CSUMB campus comprises approximately 5 percent of the total FORA land area.

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The campus falls within three municipal boundaries: The southern portion of the West Campus is located in the city of Seaside, the northern portion is within the city of Marina, and the remainder of the campus is within unincorporated Monterey County. The FORA board is comprised of members representing those two cities and the county, as well as the surrounding cities of Carmel, Del Rey Oaks, Sand City, Monterey, Pacific Grove, and Salinas.

CSUMB incorporated relevant information from FORA's May 1996 plan for the years 2015 to 2030 in the long-range plan for the campus, which is compatible with plans being pursued by surrounding jurisdictions. The FORA board adopted the final plan in 1997. CSUMB's master plan was updated in 2004 to include new plans for West Campus residential housing--which marks the end of the university's aggressive reuse of military buildings.

The CSUMB/Fort Ord conversion of a portion of a military installation to an institution of higher education was designated as a national model for defense conversion in September 1993. CSU was eligible to receive property at no cost or at a discounted price for educational use through the Economic Development Conveyance (EDC) process.

To further complicate matters, the Defense Authorization Act of 1993 created a new conveyance mechanism, allowing a Local Reuse Authority (LRA) to request property specifically for economic development purposes. The LRA could prepare and administer land-use plans within the former Fort Ord including FORA, CSU, the University of California, and the California Department of Parks and Recreation. The LRA has the authority to hold and manage property over the long term or to sell the property and retain the proceeds to finance infrastructure and other improvements necessary to support further development. The LRA plan acknowledges the CSUMB campus as a full-service educational institution of, eventually, 8,500 FTE students, providing facilities and services to support graduate and undergraduate programs.

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RENOVATION, REGULATIONS, AND RESOURCES

Led by Hank Hendrickson, a former Fort Ord commander, the university completed a building inventory of the conveyed facilities in 1993. The new startup campus needed classrooms, offices, and computer labs to house the first class of students. The primary criterion for accepting an Army building was whether or not it was salvageable.

In general, the university selected the newest spaces on the site. During the next several months, the facilities staff verified that the building utilities were structurally and mechanically sound and made minor cosmetic changes. Within one year, the university completed its first phase of building remodeling in preparation for the first freshman class.

Federal, state, and CSU rules and regulations guided the design and development of classroom space for the university. These included CSU space formulae, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance regulations, energy efficiency guidelines, and so on. If the university targeted a building for use, it contracted with an approved list of architects and consultants to detail improvements needed to comply with seismic and ADA building regulations. Few of the Army's buildings met the newer construction or accessibility requirements mandated by California.

The Economic Development Administration (EDA) served as the primary funding source for construction at CSUMB until 2003. The university used EDA funds to renovate the labs, classrooms. Those funds were critical because as each building came under scrutiny by planning and construction staff, the constant discovery requirement added costs to each remodeling effort.