San Clemente : Petitioners Would Limit New Homes to 500 Yearly

A drive to restrict residential development in San Clemente by placing a ceiling on the number of homes that could be built each year will soon be getting under way as organizers attempt to obtain enough signatures on a petition to qualify for a special election.

The petition seeks a vote to enact an ordinance that would limit new residential construction to 500 units a year. Currently, city officials expect construction to begin on 700 homes this year.

Brian Rice and Tom Lorch, co-authors of the petition, say San Clemente’s aggressive growth plans will cause a breakdown in the city’s ability to provide essential services and will lead to worse traffic congestion and parking shortages.

Both cited a similar ordinance eancted by San Juan Capistrano that restricts residential development to 400 houses a year.

“We’re not coming from a slow-growth position. We’re not a pair of political geeks screaming our heads off,” Rice said. “We just want to see some type of controlled growth.”

City Manager Jim Hendrickson agreed that San Clemente’s growth plans are aggressive, with its population expected to double by the year 2000, but said that the city is taking steps to ensure that expansion doesn’t get out of hand.

“Right now, we’re experiencing a pretty fast rate of development, but we’re staffing up to meet that need,” Hendrickson said, stressing that the city will hire 14 full-time employees, primarily for the planning and building departments, during the current fiscal year.

Because the petition would have to undergo a 30-day validation period after being submitted to the city, it is unlikely that the measure could make the August 24 deadline for placement on the November ballot, Acting City Clerk Marge Will said.

The next regularly scheduled election is for November, 1986. However, if 15% of San Clemente’s 17,551 registered voters, or about 2,632, sign the petition, a special election could be called.