CSUMB master plan looks for private dollars to grow.

CSU Monterey Bay looks toward its future with a final draft of its master plan circulating throughout campus. The plan sets a blueprint for growth and development on campus over the next 15 years, which includes growing the student population by thousands while achieving the goal of carbon neutrality over the same time.

“This is a roadmap to the future,” Chris Placco, CSUMB’s vice president for planning and campus development, said during a presentation at Carpenter’s Union Hall in Marina on April 21. “We may not have immediate plans to build more housing, but if a developer comes with an attractive proposal, we have to be ready.”

The master plan, which likely will be adopted by the CSU Board of Trustees in the winter of 2017, targets six points for development, including efficient growth, disincentivizing driving and building private partnerships.

The plan lays out infrastructure and building needed to support the growth in student population from just over 7,000 presently to 12,700 by 2030. With an increased student body also comes an increased number of faculty and staff, further adding jobs – and possible traffic. To remedy the latter, the goal is to create housing for 60 percent of students and 50 percent of staff to live on campus.

Currently, 70 to 78 percent of students, faculty and staff drive alone to campus. Over the next 15 years, CSUMB officials hope to drop that number to 30 percent. To achieve that, the master plan calls for building density in the campus core as well as easier access to public transit and biking options.

The plan also carries a hefty, uncalculated, price tag.

“The money isn’t there to do big development the way we have in the past,” Placco said, as he emphasized the need to work with private developers to obtain the goals laid out by the master plan.

To view the CSUMB Master Plan, visit https://csumb.edu/campusplanning/campus-master-plan-2016