Like other local developments in the former Fort Ord that were approved in the aughts, a time of great optimism, East Garrison – which the County Board of Supervisors approved in 2004 – failed to launch as the Great Recession tanked the market.
It finally started to break ground in 2013, but its final phase – the fourth, which will include a long-awaited “town center” with a commercial core – has been on ice, as the current developers who have taken over the project have been re-envisioning its final phase to make it more commercially viable. Essentially, that’s meant downsizing the commercial town center core from 75,000 square feet to 30,000 square feet. Tony Lombardo, representing developer UCP, advocated before the supervisors that the updates were necessary due to the changing economic conditions in the past 20 years.
The supervisors agreed and approved the amendment, which also created a slight reduction in residential units, but the one sticking point was parking. Many residents argued the revised plan doesn’t provide adequate parking, and as a condition of approval, the supervisors asked that county staff take a fresh, impartial look at UCP consultant Kimley Horn’s parking analysis.
But the streets are wide open – there’s parking everywhere. However, the homeowner’s association prohibits homeowners from parking on the street, even though it’s fair game to park on for the general public, by law.
And just a few months ago, the HOA sent out a notice to homeowners informing them that their garages would be subject to a “step-by-step process of… ‘Garage Review’’’ so that the HOA board of directors could be better informed about giving out street parking passes.
Yet Gary Redenbacher, an attorney retained by some residents, wrote a letter in January that insists the requirement to inspect a homeowners garage is beyond the HOA’s power.