Applicants Head for San Clemente as Ban on Building Expires

Although the city of San Clemente does not open for business until 8 a.m. on weekdays, Newport Beach architect Robert E. Iggulden arrived a full hour early on Wednesday.

Iggulden is project architect for a 32,000-square-foot office building complex that his company has wanted to build in San Clemente since early last summer. However, a 6-month building moratorium--imposed by city officials last July to cope with a complex slow-growth initiative passed by voters June 7--threw that and other development projects into a holding pattern.

As of 8 a.m. Wednesday, the moratorium officially ended and the city planner’s office again resumed accepting applications and plans for new developments. Iggulden, whose Architect’s Group is designing the project for a Costa Mesa developer, was the first of five applicants to submit their plans Wednesday.

“I wanted to make sure I was going to get down there fairly early, which gives you an indication of how much the owner of this property wants to get this project going again,” Iggulden said.

Although city officials did not get the crush of applicants Wednesday that they anticipated, they expect to continue receiving building requests in the coming days. Principal City Planner Bob Goldin said that, in all, about 30 new business projects were affected by the moratorium.

Business people contacted Wednesday were relieved that the moratorium had finally lifted.

“It provides the opportunity for many property owners to continue with their individual developments, . . . (thereby) providing employment,” said David Christian, Western Savings & Loan Assn. project manager for the 300-acre Rancho San Clemente business park.

Most of the city’s new commercial building activity is concentrated in that business park, located in the so-called “backcountry” in the eastern part of San Clemente. The moratorium had little impact on house construction, as a 1986 slow-growth measure already limits San Clemente’s new housing to 500 units per year.

“(The moratorium has) definitely been a detriment to the community,” said Robert Crowther, vice president of Fountain Valley-based Munson Properties, which applied Wednesday to build 126,000 square feet of office and industrial space in Rancho San Clemente.

San Clemente’s slow-growth initiative, known as Measure E, was passed by nearly two-thirds of local voters last June. The City Council declared a 6-month moratorium after it became evident that San Clemente could not quickly implement the tough and complex wording of the initiative.

But on Oct. 19, Orange County Superior Court Judge John C. Woolley threw out the measure, declaring it unconstitutional.

But the slow-growth oriented City Council has indicated that it intends to preserve the intent of the initiative through a growth management plan that is to be prepared by the city by the end of this year.

Mayor Brian Rice said the growth plan will incorporate such Measure E conditions as making sure new development is of high quality and does not worsen traffic congestion.

In the nearly 2 years it may take to implement that growth plan, Rice said the city will continue reviewing development applications on a case-by-case basis, as it had before Measure E was adopted.

Councilman Thomas Lorch--an ardent slow-growth activist who helped lead the campaigns for both Measure E and a 1986 measure limiting residential growth to 500 units per year--said he voted against lifting the moratorium Dec. 21 without including new conditions for approval of projects.

One of the conditions Lorch advocated was making new projects conform to a model the city built that assesses traffic conditions and the effect new development will have on them. The model was built to help implement Measure E, but city planners said it is still useful.

“I feel that it is kind of wide open right now (as to what the city will approve and what the city will not approve),” Lorch said.