Lusk, San Clemente Seek Compromise on Marblehead Plan

Negotiations between San Clemente and the developer of a proposed 253-acre project that would include the Richard Nixon Presidential Library continued late Wednesday, as the two sides tried to reach a compromise before City Council members cast their votes on the plan.

While the City Council continued with the rest of its agenda, City Manager James B. Hendrickson and Donald Steffesen, executive vice president of the Lusk Co. of Irvine, negotiated privately on two conditions that the council wants to attach to the proposal.

The council was expected to vote if Hendrickson and Steffesen agree, Mayor Holly Ann Veale told the audience of about 75 that gathered to learn the council’s decision on Phase I of the project known as the Marblehead Coastal Plan.

Before the private talks, council members indicated that they were ready to vote on the project during Wednesday night’s meeting, which marked the fourth public hearing.

Donations Required

The council’s conditional approval would require Lusk to donate four more acres to the civic center portion of the development, as well as make about $200,000 in site improvements to accommodate a 12-acre bluff-top park.

Although Lusk representatives have said all along they will not adhere to these conditions, Steffesen told the council his company would consider agreeing to either one of the two conditions, but not both.

“We, in the spirit of compromise, would offer to do one or the other,” Steffesen said.

“If you want a civic center, fine. If you want a bluff-top park, fine. . . . Our bottom line is you can’t have both.”

As proposed by the city, the project would include the library, 1,198 homes, three hotels and a commercial complex atop 100-foot-high bluffs along oceanfront property near Avenido Pico.

The council’s approval is only the first step to getting the library built. If Lusk agrees to the conditional approval, then the Richard Nixon Presidential Archives Foundation must seek a coastal permit from the California Coastal Commission.

Money Already Contributed

Archives Foundation members have said they cannot continue to delay the library project indefinitely, because people have donated $25 million for it to be built.