Striking a Balance in San Juan : City Divided Over Building for Future, Preserving Past

Bob Dunn has a new line he uses on the Sunday afternoon tours he conducts of the rustic shops, restaurants and adobe buildings that surround the 213-year-old Spanish mission.

Escorting tourists past a Western-style building on Camino Capistrano, Dunn directs the group’s attention to the Franciscan Plaza, the city’s unfinished commercial showplace that is due to open late this year.

“I tell them that here is the worst example of a mission-style escalator in history,” Dunn said about the recently installed, stainless steel apparatus that will move shoppers from a Spanish-style courtyard in the two-acre plaza to an upscale restaurant overlooking the aging brick storefronts across the street.

The Franciscan Plaza, long a center of dispute in this city first settled more than 200 years ago, is symbolic of the dilemma shared by city officials, merchants and community leaders who are struggling to balance a desire to preserve the rich, rural history of the town while ensuring its financial future.

Some locals have complained that a 2-year-old plan sponsored by the Community Redevelopment Agency to invigorate the Historic Town Center will destroy the village-like ambience in this landmark South County city.

They charge that the Franciscan Plaza, owned by local developer Paul Farber, is another example of poor planning that is rampant in South County and that any further development near the mission threatens to erode the area’s charm.

Others have advocated that the city’s ambitious plan to create a 6.5-acre commercial center around the mission will raise needed tax dollars and draw more tourists to what was once the center of activity in Orange County.

The debate entered a new phase recently when city officials announced that they have temporarily put a halt to the controversial renewal project, which was outlined two years ago by the San Diego-based development company, Oliver McMillan.

The plan called for creating a “pueblo village” district that included a walking mall in front of the mission, a 125-room, bed-and-breakfast hotel, retail shops, restaurants and a realignment of the Ortega Highway to direct traffic from Interstate 5 to a new four-level parking structure next to the Franciscan Plaza.

The Franciscan Plaza, first proposed in 1982, is not part of the Oliver McMillan plan, but was approved by city officials because it was in line with what city planners had envisioned.

The decision to postpone the $28-million renewal project on city-owned property--bounded by Ortega Highway, Del Obispo Street and Camino Capistrano--came after archeologists found thousands of artifacts that shed light on the life styles of the local Indians and early Spanish settlers.

Greenwood & Associates, the Los Angeles-based archeological consulting firm, recently was hired to review the 1988 findings and to make recommendations on future development, city officials said.

“We found far more artifacts than anybody had ever imagined,” Mayor Gary L. Hausdorfer said. “For now, we are nowhere near ready to comment” on what changes may be made to the project.

Archeologists also found artifacts at the Franciscan Plaza, including the foundation of the former Valenzuela family adobe, believed to date back to the early 1880s, and foundations from the Juan Avila adobe, built in the 1840s and destroyed by fire in 1879.

The find slowed the project for nine months, developer Farber said. The city recently agreed to reimburse Farber $277,365 he spent during the digs. In exchange, Farber will turn over artifacts that were found at his project site.

Critics who had bitterly criticized Farber for continuing work on the plaza despite the archeological finds are now praising city officials for delaying the more expansive, city-sponsored project.

“It’s definitely a step in the right direction,” said Dunn, a member of Friends of Historic San Juan Capistrano, an ad hoc group that was formed in response to the development of the Franciscan Plaza and the overall city plan.

But Dunn and others continue to be critical of any plans to change the historic section of town.

“This is just such a unique spot in California,” Dunn said. “We have here the centerpiece of the beginnings of Orange County. We have the historical beginnings of any settlement between Los Angeles and San Diego.”

The San Juan Capistrano Mission, called “the jewel of the Spanish missions,” was founded in 1776 by Father Junipero Serra and is the only mission he founded in Orange County.

Some redevelopment opponents have suggested that the city reconstruct the Historic Town Center in a manner similar to what was done at Williamsburg, Va., and the Plimouth Village in Massachusetts, where costumed employees re-create the original life style of the time.

“That would be a very successful endeavor,” said Nicholas Magalousis, director of the Mission San Juan Capistrano Museum. He said that a reconstructed village would not only offer employment for local residents, but it would be educational and profitable.

“If handled appropriately, it could be a real winner,” Magalousis said.

Meantime, Darlene Perrault, an outspoken critic of the redevelopment plan, continues to harangue city officials for approving the Franciscan Plaza, charging that the project is a sign that city officials are insensitive to the historical significance of the commercial district.

Once evicted from a store owned by Farber for collecting signatures from residents who opposed the plaza, Perrault now operates a monogramming shop across the street from the plaza, which will contain yogurt and pizza shops, boutiques and a five-screen cinema complex.

“I know a lot of people who like this area just like it is,” Perrault said. “This is a wonderful little town. It has so much class.”

Farber, although acknowledging that the city’s more important archeological discoveries should be saved, has been critical of the delays to his project while findings were unearthed. The archeology studies cost Farber $379,047, city officials said.

“We can’t save every adobe floor we find,” Farber said, “but the important ones have to be preserved.”

Some other local merchants agreed with Farber, saying they believe that redevelopment is the best idea for the area.

“The city’s got to compete with other cities,” said Janet Morales, a bartender at the popular Swallows Inn neighborhood bar, which faces the Franciscan Plaza.

“If we can attract more money, then it’s good,” she said, adding, however, “they just have to do it right.”

Hausdorfer said accusations that he and other council members are ignoring the historical quality of the area are unfounded. He said that the council has often voted on the side of preservationists by protecting open space and the series of ridgelines that ring the city.

He said that the initial idea for the downtown project has been circulated for almost a decade, but city officials have still not approved any specific plan.

“This process has been very slow, very deliberate and very fair,” he said.

Hausdorfer said, however, that he favors redevelopment, although he declined to speculate on what it would look like until the archeological review is complete later this year.

“There is a demand for some type of small-scale pedestrian area,” he said. “But there needs to be a balance between economics and aesthetics.”

San Juan Capistrano Redevelopment A. Proposed Historic Town Center owned by San Juan Capistrano Community Redevelopment Agency. B. Vacant land where archeologists unearthed thousands of relics left by Indians and early Spanish settlers. C. Franciscan Plaza