San Clemente : Decision Postponed on Bed-and-Breakfast Inns

The City Council on April 3 will reconsider a proposal that would allow bed-and-breakfast inns in some areas of the city.

The council sent the proposal back to the Planning Commission Wednesday after deciding that such businesses should be restricted to areas outside single-family residential zones. It was the second time in two months that the council considered the proposal and sent it back to the Planning Commission for changes and further study.

Although the Planning Commission’s recommendation was to allow bed-and-breakfast inns only in the older, west-of-the-freeway residential and commercial/apartment sections, the council wants further restrictions on the locations of the inns.

“Basically, the council doesn’t want the inns in single-family residential areas,” said Assistant City Planner Carlene Baskevitch. “So they sent it back to the staff with some suggestions.”

The original proposal recommended concentrating bed-and-breakfast inns in the city’s more than 200 historic structures. These buildings, mostly homes that were declared significant because of their “special historical, cultural and architectural interest,” are found throughout the city. The council, however, wants to limit the inns to only those historic structures within the city’s commercial districts.

“We would like to promote the small-business persons, the mom-and-pop businesses rather than commercial inns,” Baskevitch said. “But there is some opposition to having the businesses in residential neighborhoods.”