County supes move forward with revamp of Seaside’s Social Services campus.

Following a more than year-long pause in the project, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors considered options for the upgrade or relocation of Seaside’s aging County Department of Social Services building on Tuesday, Jan. 27.

In 2022, county officials began working toward the development of a new building that would become a nexus point for numerous services, including a modernized Seaside branch library and a family justice center.

The existing 1.7-acre site at 1281 Broadway contains the current 11,000-square-foot social services building, and also includes the 4,500-square-foot building occupied by Casa de Noche Buena, an emergency shelter for women and families with children, which underwent a major renovation in 2019. A 10-year deed restriction was recorded with the County in 2020 “for continued use of the site for the shelter operations.”

After considering a four-story, 64,000-square-foot building, which had a cost estimate exceeding $110 million – and would call for the relocation of the shelter due to required parking – the supervisors directed staff to pause the project in November 2024 and look into lower-cost options that would not displace the shelter from the campus.

In August 2025, seven lower-cost development options were presented to the county’s capital improvement committee, which decided that the options should be considered by the Board of Supervisors at a future date.

That future date arrived on Jan. 27, when the board considered the options, which included renovation, demolishing the current building to make way for a new one or relocating the services to a new location, with one option proposing to move social services to a 75,500-square-foot facility on Highway 68, outside of Seaside.

Seaside City Manager Greg McDanel asked that the services remain at 1281 Broadway. In a letter, he wrote, “We view this site as a cornerstone of the Broadway corridor and a tangible example of effective City-County partnership in service delivery, downtown revitalization, and community well-being.”

Following robust discussion about managing the cost, supervisors voted 3-2 to pursue the option favored by McDanel, which calls to demolish the existing facility and build a three-story, 46,500-square-foot building with underground parking. Of the seven concepts, ranging from $16.7 million to $75.1 million in estimated cost, this was the highest-cost proposal.