San Clemente : Calafia Beach Park Concept Before Council

For three decades the idea of developing the scruffy Calafia Beach bluff area into a park has been explored, but the issue may finally be decided tonight when the City Council votes on whether to conceptually approve the San Clemente Beach Park plan.

A major obstacle in turning the bluff area into a county park has been its multiple ownership: The state owns the beach and surrounding bluff area; the City of San Clemente owns the street, and the Santa Fe Railroad owns a 100-foot strip of land paralleling the beach.

But three years ago wheels finally began to turn when the city successfully lobbied the Orange County Board of Supervisors to develop the area into a county park, and the county Environmental Management Agency drafted a San Clemente Beach Park General Development Plan for the area.

The city Parks and Recreation Commission has recommended that the council conceptually approve the plan and authorize negotiation of long-term lease agreements with the county.

The county is interested in developing a seven-acre park with public restrooms and parking for 242 cars along Avenida Calafia, as well as a bluff-top park and a gazebo overlooking the beach along Avenida Lobeiro.

The area is now run-down with only dirt parking. Vandalism and public drinking have been perennial problems in the Calafia Beach bluffs, the police and city officials have said.

In a Sept. 23 staff report written to the City Council, Lynn Hughes, city marine safety captain, said the city would consider a long-term lease of the Avenida Calafia park “if the county would provide the lion’s share of funds for the park’s development.” In exchange, Hughes noted, the city would consider maintaining and policing the park.

Beach access--a means of safe pedestrian passage past the railroad tracks--has not been worked out, perhaps the one remaining snag to the proposed park plan. The Parks and Recreation Commission, as well as county planners, favor a ground-level crossing at a projected $50,000 cost--rather than a pedestrian overpass ($250,000) or underpass ($750,000) because it would be cheaper and easier to use.