Suits Filed in Challenge to San Clemente Growth Limit

In the first court challenge to San Clemente’s strict new growth limit, a Phoenix developer contended Monday that the voter-backed restriction is unconstitutional and violates state housing policy.

However, a key grass-roots organizer of the effort to pass the tough ordinance vowed to “do it again” if the court challenge to Measure B is successful.

WSLA Development Corp., which owns the 1,943-acre Rancho San Clemente, filed two lawsuits Monday seeking $100 million in damages and a court order blocking enforcement of the law limiting new housing units to 500 per year in four projects involving nearly 8,000 acres.

Other Developments Affected

The other backcountry developments affected by Measure B include Forster Ranch, Telega Valley and Marblehead Inland. City officials expect that the owners of these projects will also go to court to try to overturn the measure.

Measure B was approved, 4,260 to 2,830, on Feb. 25 by San Clemente voters who wanted to limit growth in their community. But David R. Christian, WSLA’s Costa Mesa-based project manager, complained that “we can’t break even under Measure B after investing $104.5 million.”

“Our break-even point would probably be right around 500 units per year, but we’re competing with three other developers for those units. The most we can hope for is 250 to 300 permits per year, and that’s not enough to sustain us,” he said.

San Clemente City Atty. Jeff Oderman said he had expected the court action, noting that “we’ve been told that there was going to be litigation, so this comes as no surprise.”

‘Good Chance’ for New Measure

Oderman declined to discuss the lawsuits because the city has not received copies. Other city officials were unavailable for comment.

However, Brian Rice, a dentist who spearheaded the effort on behalf of Measure B, along with aerospace engineer Tom Lorch, expressed confidence Monday that WSLA’s lawsuit will fail.

Even if the measure is struck down, Rice added, “there’s a very good chance we’d do it (rewrite the measure and put it on the ballot) again. People down here were not happy with the way the growth of the city was going. . . . The will of the people must be carried out.”

In a Superior Court lawsuit filed Monday, WSLA sought a court order barring enforcement of the San Clemente ordinance.

The suit contends that state legislators specifically barred artificial restrictions on the number of residential dwelling units within a city. Moreover, the complaint alleged that Measure B “is an arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable exercise of the police power and does not reasonably relate to the advancement of the public welfare.”

In addition, the lawsuit contended that “the purported burdens on streets and freeways, parking facilities, schools, utilities and municipal services” generated by the four backcountry projects “are no greater than those faced by other municipalities and unincorporated areas within the region, and the enforcement of the growth limitation ordinance will necessarily increase the burdens on the systems and services of those other communities to a disproportionate and inequitable degree.”

In a separate federal court lawsuit filed in Los Angeles, WSLA claims that it went through all the required procedures to develop the land and spent money in the good-faith belief that the city would honor its previous commitments. Not to carry through now, the complaint added, would violate the U.S. Constitution’s due process requirement.

According to the firm, 90% of the grading, 80% of the streets, 95% of the water system and 90% of the drainage have been completed for the 2,931 units planned for Rancho San Clemente. The company purchased the land for $29 million in 1982.

Christian said Monday that permits have been obtained for 834 homes, leaving the firm and its builder-clients 2,100 units short of their goal.

The city has not processed any permit requests submitted by the firm since the Feb. 25 election, while a permit review panel is being created. No court hearing date has been set on the WSLA lawsuit, according to Christian.