A redesigned food project in The Dunes gets initial approval.

For the dream of restaurants in The Dunes—a 429-acre food desert in Marina on the former Fort Ord—hope springs anew. 

Monterey developer Scott Negri, whose initial proposal for a restaurant project in The Dunes was denied by City Council last October, is back with new plans, and they were approved in a 4-1 vote by Marina's Design Review Board last night in a meeting that stretched for hours. 

The DRB approved Negri's initial proposal last spring, also in a 4-1 vote, but Negri says this meeting was different.

"This had a lot more scrutiny than the first time," Negri says. "Truly, it was a four-hour meeting of going through each page of my submittal, I’d say with a fine-toothed comb."

Negri's project—which will bring a Chipotle, Starbucks, Blaze Pizza and other eating establishments to a 3.7-acre parcel across from the new Century Marina theater—was denied in October because it was deemed too auto-centric, and did not have the square footage density required under Marina's General Plan. 

But his redesign addresses those concerns, and more: He's eliminated one of the two drive-thrus orginally proposed, and increased building square footage, number of windows, walkability within the site and the outdoor dining area space. 

The new proposal is also more level with Second Avenue, affording a walkway entrance on the eastern side of the project, and one of the four buildings now has a second floor, which is an addition that many critics called for last fall.

By adding that second story, as well as eliminating the second drive-thru, the project now meets Marina's minimum threshold for density. 

The new proposal goes to the Marina Planning Commission next Thursday, and Negri is optimistic: He says the single nay vote from the DRB was on account of the buildings' colors. 

If the Planning Commission approves the plans—and if that approval is not appealed to City Council—Negri can then apply for permits, and the plans will be brought in front of the Fort Ord Reuse Authority board to ensure their consistency with the Base Reuse Plan. 

Negri's hope is to have two of the four buildings completed by the 2016 holiday season. Those two—which the plans refer to as buildings "A" and "B"—have eight pre-leased tenants, six of which are food establishments. 

The third building will be on the southeastern corner of the property, and the fourth (building "D") will come next. That one is more complicated because of the second story, Negri says. 

In short, he could have an elevator and stairway on the outside, or the inside, it just depends which tenant wants to lease the space. 

"We need to keep our flexibility as wide open as possible and let the market tell us what should go there," he says. 

As for what restaurants might go in the few un-leased spaces remaining in his project site, Negri is circumspect, though he admits he's talked to Joey Nguyen, owner-operator of Monterey's newly-opened Poke Lab. Negri is a fan, but it's complicated. 

"Joey has done a really interesting job, but he’s only been open for two weeks. I told him, 'I’ll check back with you.' He has a restaurant to work out."