SLO is an engineering school. CSUMB doesn’t even have physics classes. I think the offerings are limited at CSUMB and that could be one factor. Also CSUs tend to be more commuter schools and Monterey doesn’t have that population.
Do you have access to home builder marketing surveys? I’d love to see them, if you have them.
What I can tell you is that there’s a strong local market from long time residents of Marina, Sand City, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Carmel, Pebble Beach, etc.
Of course, I’m sure there are some Silicon Valley residents moving down there as well, although that’s one heck of a painful commute on 101 through Morgan Hill and Gillroy, if folks have jobs to commute to in Silicon Valley.
My point is that the area is becoming more and more vibrant. And will continue over the next decade or two.
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It’s shocking how many people commute. It became so popular during the pandemic and now many commute for only two days a week and work from home the rest of the time.
But yes, it’s becoming much more vibrant. Hopefully it will keep on getting better.
We have friends who own there. Locals were hoping for better pricing, but people with big incomes from north can sustain the current price tags. They are astronomical.
It’s good for students to have this area more built up.
It’s not different according to the City of Monterey. Here’s a few excerpts from their 2018 analysis:
From City of Monterey, CA
It seems like there’s a strong contingent of NIMBYs who oppose all development and would prefer this to just be open space (which the majority of the land is already intended to become). Remember that there are also a lot of former military installations in the Marin headlands with zero chance of development, which serve as a model for anti-development forces. Look up what happened to Marincello:
And only part of UCSC is a “protected forest”. Most of the lower half of the campus consists of acres of open meadow. But they’ve been trying to build on a small part of this (just some old ranch buildings) since 2004 and still haven’t broken ground.
You’re right that SLO’s offerings and educational model make it very popular right now. I remember back when I graduated (‘91) it attracted a totally different type of student. But I don’t think it has ever really been a commuter school. CSUMB has Nursing (high demand) and Marine Biology (perfect location).
I’m just sad to see this school struggling. I also think it’s the chicken and egg situation of perceived prestige
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I would assume any intention for a UC in the area would be largely residential/aimed at kids from elsewhere, hence my comment above about lots of dorm space would be needed.
As someone who hikes the Marincello trail nearly every single day, I am definitely grateful that the Headlands weren’t turned into a mini-Newport Beach! (There’s a funny under the radar indie film inspired by the Marincello story called The Californians).
My D applied all over CA as a marine bio major but didn’t bite on CSUMB. The one pro that she considered was the fact that they probably have the best internship pipeline with the aquarium, but her impression overall was that there’s no residential life/community.
I’m sure that’s what many of the people who enjoy walking around the open space that used to be Ford Ord say too…
As was noted in the report I cited above, one of the biggest barriers to building anything in CA is that “community activism and political actions…tie up projects in lengthy litigation” whether that’s much needed housing in Berkeley, Santa Cruz or elsewhere. Building near the coast, where there are additional restrictions, is even harder.
The part where CSUMB is built is not Monterey. It’s Seaside. And they did just fine allowing a building of a campus. As I said, different cities got different parcels. I wish they had built a UC instead of a CSU. Are you arguing with me that they couldn’t have built a campus? Because they actually did build it.
They lost their ability to offer physician assistance program accreditation.
Also the nursing program (if I remember correctly) is after you get your nursing degree at a two year school.
Marine bio is popular. Education degrees are great. And apparently technology degree. But it’s still very limited compared to SLO or other more established CSUs.
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But the argument is that it should (have?) become a residential UC which would inevitably mean a much greater size and overall footprint. I don’t see that as a possibility given the land use constraints. And let’s not forget, the base closure decision was taken in 1997 and nearly 30 years later there are still arguments about potential development of the site. California simply can’t build things we need, especially near the coast.
I agree that we have issues with building overall in the state, but all I am saying is UC would have been a better choice than CSU. Maybe you couldn’t scale it to 50k students, but you could have scaled into 20k, taking the pressure off some of the other campuses. UC Merced has 9k kids only.
Instead the money was poured into a CSU campus that isn’t even doing all that well.
Or they could have made a satellite campus of UCSC and run shuttles.
Aren’t CSU and UC two different systems? UC is providing massive subsidies to establish UC Merced. They couldn’t have taken on another obligation in the early 2000s.
I agree that a more thoughtful approach might have been to make it a UCSC satellite campus for freshmen, given the housing problems in Santa Cruz. But that didn’t happen at Berkeley with Mills College either…
Development is happening right now.
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not to mention thousands of new homes for faculty, researchers, post-docs, and Admin. Just not feasible.
I LOL’ed about the description of 1994 as “relatively recently” and that it will take at least 10 years to build out “campus town”. And I’m not seeing much in here about building out new dorms, most of the housing appears to be single family homes for sale.
However, despite years of setbacks, Malin expects that by the end of this year, developers will finally break ground on Campus Town.
He predicts that the project will, “have at least a 10-year build-up.”
An enormous contrast to the growth of (for example) my D’s campus at Utah while she was there: even during Covid they managed to convert a parking lot and soccer field to a huge new dorm starting after her freshman year and finishing when she graduated.
As I mentioned, I’m down there, near the old base, on a regular basis. I’ve driven through it several times. Dirt is moving and sticks are in the air. Of course, development takes time in CA. And an old Army base needs a lot of environmental clean up, due to environmental concerns.
Contrasting or comparing SLC, Utah to the Monterey Peninsula is quite funny to me. I didn’t find downtown SLC all that great, when we visited.
I’ll bet CSUMB will be a thriving campus in the next couple of decades. Yes, development in CA takes time. But I think future students will find a beautiful CSUMB campus and surrounding area, but we may all be dead by that time. 
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Considering the real estate situation in CA I don’t understand why they’re not building 4 to 6 unit buildings with balconies and a shared garden as well as made to order communal living spaces (two units sharing a large kitchen, laundry room, dining room, and entertainment room + a garden - generally, families that know each other or multigenerational families).
In that situation single family homes seems very wasteful.
But I also don’t understand why in the past decade it’s become essential to have one bathroom per bedroom.
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Northeastern I hear is doing things at Mills campus. It’s too bad Berkeley didn’t work out.
UCLA snatched up a campus at Palos Verdes. I don’t know if they started to do anything with it.
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