Progress to Take a Detour Past San Juan Landmark

A 50-year-old eucalyptus tree in San Juan Capistrano that threatened to get in the way of a $400,000 road construction project will stay where it is, and the road will simply wrap around it. Traffic lanes will be on one side and a walkway on the other.

The graceful tree, about 60 feet tall, is at the southeast corner of Del Obispo Street and Camino del Avion, where construction will soon be under way to help ease traffic congestion in south Orange County.

“It was a seedling that just started growing there by itself,” said George (Buddy) Forster, a descendant of the pioneer Forster family of San Juan Capistrano, who lives in a three-story house built in 1898 a few yards from the tree.

He said the seed apparently came from a row of trees planted more than 100 years ago as windbreaks for nearby crops.

Concrete Planter Planned

The alteration on the intersection will tie in with a $25-million Orange County project which, among other things, will extend Del Avion from San Juan Capistrano to Crown Valley Parkway in Laguna Niguel.

On the way, it will intersect with Street of the Golden Lantern, which is being extended from Dana Point to another spot on Crown Valley Parkway. It will also connect with Niguel Road between Dana Point and Laguna Niguel.

The old tree, however, will remain. “We’re just making a sort of concrete planter around it, and it should do fine,” said Bill Murphy, director of public works for San Juan Capistrano.

Because part of the original project plan called for finding a way to preserve the tree. Murphy said there will be no cost added to the $400,000 intersection construction budget.

Portions of the job outside San Juan Capistrano--the bulk of the $25-million project--are being paid for by 10 developers who own property within a special assessment district set up for the purpose.

Murphy said the road work at Del Obispo and Del Avion, which is being done at city expense, will probably be finished in November, with landscaping and final touches completed by next March.

Children returning to Marco F. Forster Junior High School, across the street from the tree, will notice some changes in the roadway, but the tall eucalyptus will still be there.