San Clemente : City Council Rejects High-Density Condos

Plans for a high-density 250-unit condominium project, which was to have been built on an 11.4-acre site, went down to defeat when the City Council voted 3 to 2 to deny approval of a tentative tract map.

The vote originally had been scheduled for the May 1 council meeting but had been postponed until Wednesday after several council members expressed concern that the unusually high density would lead to ghetto-like conditions in the condominium complex.

If the tract map had been approved Wednesday, it would have permitted the construction of a project with a density of 22 units per acre in an area of San Clemente where the General Plan allows a maximum density of 15 units to the acre.

To satisfy density requirements, the Planning Commission would have allowed a second developer to build 90 single-family homes on an adjoining 11-acre parcel, bringing the average density of the two into line with the city’s General Plan.

Mayor Robert Limberg, who voted against the project, said later that the proposed density of 22 units per acre was 50% higher than the maximum allowed in the Rancho San Clemente area and over a period of time could have led to undesirable living conditions. “When you look at social problems, there is often high density involved,” he said.

Councilman G. Scott Diehl, who voted in favor of the development, said the overall density would not have been higher than allowed because of the limit imposed by the city planners on the number of single-family homes to be built alongside the condominium development. If the city is to maintain open spaces in the Rancho San Clemente development, he said, high-density projects will be a necessity in some areas.

Diehl also discounted speculation that having condominium dwellers packed so tightly would have led to social problems. Pride of ownership, he said, would have prevented residents from allowing the development to deteriorate into a slum.

The condominium development also would have included 100 units to be set aside for low- and moderate-income residents under San Clemente’s affordable-housing requirements. Under the city’s plan, the affordable units would have been available for families whose yearly incomes are less than 120% of the county median of $38,000.

Meanwhile, the council unanimously approved tract maps for two smaller projects, including subdivision of a 23-acre parcel in the Rancho San Clemente area for construction of 76 single-family homes and subdivision of a 6,720-square-foot site for construction of a pair of condominium units.