Plans for San Juan’s Future Unveiled

Residents of San Juan Capistrano got a glimpse Thursday of what their city might look like a few years from now as two competing developers unveiled their proposals to reshape the historic downtown area.

Architects’ models and artists’ renderings presented at a special meeting of the Community Redevelopment Agency revealed that a town square and a hotel of about 150 rooms are key elements in both proposals. But the similarities end there.

One of the plans, submitted jointly by Birtcher, a Laguna Niguel-based development firm, and J.W. Colachis Resorts, which owns the Rancho Bernardo Inn in San Diego County, foresees a town square opening onto Camino Capistrano, currently the city’s main shopping street. The square would be surrounded on three sides by two and three-story structures, with arcades of retail shops on the ground floor and hotel rooms on the upper floors. Several towers, including one 80 feet high, would punctuate the development.

In the other plan, submitted by two San Diego firms, Oliver McMillan & Collins Development, the town square faces north toward the mission, creating a new pedestrian shopping area along the square just east of Camino Capistrano. The square would lead back to the hotel, off Forster Street. Another courtyard would connect the hotel to Camino Capistrano.

“I think they’re both excellent,” said City Manager Stephen B. Julian. “They’re quite a bit different in scope and in scale . . . but neither one is wrong, neither one is correct. The exciting thing is that now we can roll up our sleeves and work with the public on this.”

The Redevelopment Agency will select one of the proposals next month as the blueprint for an estimated $30- to $40-million face lift of the city’s center.

Some Owners Object

The area now consists of both successful businesses and vacant, neglected lots, of historic adobe and art deco buildings.

Some business owners have objected to the redevelopment plans, saying that they would alter the city’s small-town character.

Neither of the plans would touch the city’s century-old depot or two centuries-old Mission. “That’s sacrosanct,” said Brandon Birtcher, whose family donated the set of bells in the tower of the Mission’s new church.

Once a plan is selected, getting final plans

through the city’s bureaucracy could take another 18 months to two years, the city’s community development director, Nancy Erickson, said.

The Birtcher-Colachis proposal is bigger and more expensive than that offered by McMillan & Collins. Their plan, which would include seven new restaurants and a total of 98,500 square feet of retail space, would cost about $39 million.

The developers would contribute about $4.9 million in equity to the project. The city’s Redevelopment Agency would contribute between $4 million and $10 million, depending largely on whether a proposed parking lot project provides free parking. Currently, there are no parking meters or pay parking lots in San Juan Capistrano.

The McMillan & Collins plans call for two to four new restaurants, with a total of about 75,000 square feet of retail space. Their project would cost about $28.5 million. The developers propose to put up $4 million in cash, and the Redevelopment Agency would be asked to contribute between $2.5 and $5 million.