[CPEO-MEF] REUSE: Ft. Ord (CA) "early" transfer

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Army hands locals 3,300 acres at Fort Ord

Kelly Zito
San Francisco Chronicle
August 12, 2008


The last large section of Fort Ord - a former infantry training base in 
Monterey that dates back to 1917 - will sprout homes, businesses and 
parks decades sooner than originally planned. Under a landmark, $100 
million agreement, local authorities are taking over the cleanup and 
conversion of the one the biggest, most complex and contaminated 
military sites in the country.

Federal and state officials today celebrated the official transfer of 
3,300 acres from the U. S. Army to the Fort Ord Reuse Authority, a group 
of local city and county leaders who are overseeing the redevelopment of 
the 28,000-acre base just north of the town of Seaside on Monterey Bay. 
The base, which trained soldiers for World War I, World War II, the 
Korean War and the Vietnam War, was closed in the mid 1990s as part of 
the large-scale downsizing of the U.S. military.

Typically, bases are transferred to local authorities only after the 
military rids the site of toxic chemicals and old munitions. In this 
case, political, economic and community interest in the prime coastal 
real estate drove the reuse authority to lobby for the early transfer. 
Under the agreement, approved late last month by Gov. Arnold 
Schwarzenegger, the Army will supply the reuse authority with $100 
million for the cleanup - which includes the continuing, arduous task of 
locating and disposing of bombs, bullets and artillery shells.


...

For the entire article, see
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/12/MNN4129M0R.DTL&tsp=1

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



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