The public comment period is open for NPS' proposed Naval Innovation Center.

In December 2022, U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro stood before over 335 new graduating students and their families at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, where he himself had graduated from NPS’ space systems engineering program years before.

As he celebrated the new graduates, Del Toro had an important announcement for his alma mater: NPS was slated to become the site of a Naval Innovation Center, part of what he called a “bold, new vision” for U.S. Naval education.

“This Naval Innovation Center at NPS will support all of our innovation efforts,” he said, from education programs like those at NPS and throughout the Navy, “to the corridors of the Pentagon, as well as to our commanders distributed across the globe.”

It was good news for NPS, which just the year before in April 2021 was facing budget cuts and a reorganization of departments, leaving some in the region wondering about the Pentagon’s commitment to the graduate school.

Del Toro was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in August 2021. His announcement in 2022 of the proposed Innovation Center signaled a commitment to NPS’ place in Naval research into methods of modern warfare and education of future leaders.

Now, nearly 15 months later, a draft environmental assessment, similar to an environmental impact report, for the Naval Innovation Center is ready for public review and comments. Written comments are due by March 25.

The center is proposed as a 289,916-square-foot building, with three stories, a partially usable roof deck and a basement approximately half of the building’s footprint. The report estimates that the height of the building would be approximately 62 feet.

There are two sites presented as Alternative 1 and Alternative 2. Alternative 1 would place the building where an old boiler plant is located, already slated for demolition. Alternative 2 is called the Root Hall/Cottages Site, located near the old Del Monte Hotel. It would mean tearing down all or part of Root Hall and the cottages that were once used by the hotel, and are considered historic. The third alternative would be to not build the Innovation Center.

“The purpose of the NIC is to meet a new mission for NPS that expands applied research, development, testing, and evaluation with industry partners in a secure defense-focused educational venue,” the draft EA states.

“The Navy’s intention is to bring interdisciplinary research together with faculty, staff, and graduate students from specific knowledge domains to cultivate innovations that address current and future challenges and obligations for national security,” it said, adding later that existing buildings on the Naval Support Activity, where NPS is located, are “not suitable” to house the center.

Like other branches of the military, the Navy has adopted policies to reduce the carbon footprint of its facilities, including incorporating sustainable design elements to meet or exceed U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, known as LEED, according to a press release from NPS.

The draft EA is available on the project’s website, NICMontereyEA.com. A CD version of the plan is available at the public libraries in Monterey, Pacific Grove and Seaside.

Written comments may be sent through the project’s website, or by mailing to Naval Support Activity Monterey, ATTN: Public Affairs Officer, 271 Stone Road, Monterey.