City of Seaside Government News

David Schmalz here. Over the better part of the last decade, I’ve reported on the former Fort Ord and efforts to develop it, and one of the things that’s surprised me is how many people—including elected officials—don’t have a firm grasp of how difficult it is to build on that land.

The City of Seaside is finally reckoning with market forces with respect to cannabis, and reducing the allowed number of cannabis dispensaries from nine to three, while letting the existing six dispensaries continue operating so long as they choose.

So-called “backyard breeding,” the breeding of cats or dogs with no regulation, is a problem the City of Seaside has faced for years. At least in part, that’s because the city hasn’t required a permit for breeders.

Minutes after 8pm on Tuesday, Nov. 5, Seaside City Councilmember Alex Miller thrust a fist into the air.

Minutes after 8pm on Tuesday, Nov. 5, Seaside City Councilmember Alex Miller thrust a fist into the air.

The City of Seaside celebrated its 70th birthday on Sunday, Oct. 13, with an event that was supposed to span from 4-8pm at City Hall, capped by a drone light show in the final 15 minutes.

The path to developing anything locally is littered with pitfalls and often unforeseen challenges, particularly if the proposed project is on the former Fort Ord.

Seaside City Hall has seen quite a bit of upheaval in the year 2024, with resignations and firings at top positions, including city manager.

The Monterey campus of Monterey Peninsula College is a sprawling, tree-filled property just off Highway 1. MPC leadership is seeking not just to draw more students to its main campus, but also to meet students where they are.

Former Seaside city manager Jaime Fontes, who City Council terminated for no cause (“loss of confidence”) effective June 6 of this year, is not done with Seaside yet.

As Seaside development expands further north with the nascent Campus Town project, which seeks to build up to nearly 1,500 residential units on dilapidated property between Gigling Road and Lightfighter Drive, a second fire station for Seaside has long been contemplated.

Ever since the City of Seaside entered into a purchase and sale agreement with KB Bakewell Seaside Venture II, LLC in 2017 to develop the Campus Town project, which envisions 1,485 housing units and more than 150,000 square feet of commercial space on 122 acres at the city’s border with Marina, progress has been slow.

A cost-saving plan to shift all of Monterey One Water's billing to collection through county property tax bills was killed just seven days before it was to go into effect, thanks to opposition from just two of the board's 10 members in a weighted vote.

Yet again, the City of Seaside finds itself embroiled in a lawsuit over its attempts to develop the former Fort Ord, just over a week after City Council finalized an $850,000 settlement with Sacramento-based developer Paul Petrovich.

Oftentimes, change happens when feathers get ruffled.

The City of Seaside has long wrestled with questions about how best to grow, which is something that, to some extent, it must do.

Numerous top staffers have left Seaside City Hall in recent weeks, and now it appears City Manager Jaime Fontes might be on his way out too.

In 2022, the Seaside City Council approved conceptual designs for a second fire station at the corner of Gigling Road and First Avenue. The station took another step toward construction with the release of a mitigated negative declaration study on March 21.

The planned new County of Monterey building in Seaside doesn’t have a name yet, nor has the county identified funding to build it, which the latest estimate pegs at $115 million. But what county officials do have is a vision.

Fireworks have long been a polarizing issue in Seaside—some people love them, some people loathe them.