SAN CLEMENTE : New Park at Beach Creates Complaints

What was once a sandy slope with a dirt foot path is being transformed into a million-dollar beach park, with grass and winding walkways leading to the surf line.

But the long-awaited metamorphosis has not pleased everyone in a south San Clemente neighborhood.

Residents complain that the new entrance to Calafia Beach Park attracts a rash of beachgoers--mostly young, male surfers--who litter, make noise, park illegally, urinate in public and undress completely to don wet suits.

“They strip down nude at the end of my lot and I resent that,” said 10-year resident Ruth Alexander, whose back yard faces the new park and adjoining San Clemente State Beach.

“I go out to have a cup of coffee on my deck and I have to look at some guy’s behind while he’s changing into his wet suit,” Alexander said.

The residents also say that the park has created a demand for curb-side parking on streets that are being used as an alternative to the main beach entrance on Avenida Calafia, which is closed until a 210-space metered parking lot opens next month.

To solve the parking problem, which is at its worst on weekends and weekday evenings, the San Clemente City Council last week created a two-hour parking limit on the two streets most affected, Avenidas Lobeiro and Montalvo.

The new city policy allows residents to buy a $10 annual parking permit which exempts them from the two-hour restriction.

Although it was heralded by the council as a parking solution, the new rule bothers residents whose homes are on the restricted streets but more than a block from the beach. “I have to pay $10 to park on my street and there are no spaces,” resident Dorothy Dahlgren complained.

She and her neighbors have a different parking problem that they say has persisted for the last 15 years, when single homes were torn down and replaced with two- and three-story apartment buildings. They say too few driveway and garage spaces provided for the tenants have caused a parking spillover into the street and into illegal spots along red-painted curbs.

“I don’t want to take away from the people on the other end because I know they’ve had trouble with the beach,” Dahlgren said. “But we have problems on this end all year, all day and all night.”

Lynn Hughes, San Clemente marine safety captain, said the city is trying to deal with the problem.

“But when the park opens, a large part of that problem will be corrected,” she said.

Calafia Beach Park, which will include the parking lot and a concession stand, is scheduled to open to vehicles in late November as the first joint city, county and state project in South County, according to Kathie Matsuyama, senior landscape architect for the county. Orange County officials are leasing the land from the state, which provided a $1.2-million grant for improvements completed by county crews.

In a sub-lease agreement with the county, San Clemente officials will pay to maintain the park and will receive 6% of the profits from the planned concession stand, with a guaranteed minimum of $4,000 per year, Hughes said. Parking meter fees are expected to generate an additional $42,000 for the city.