SAN CLEMENTE : Closed Road Takes Toll on Business

The warm sun and clear, blue sky lulled Jim Nudo to a near-doze as he sat on a bench in front of his surf shop Tuesday.

“I might as well go to sleep,” he said bitterly, staring at the deserted street in front of him. “Nobody will be coming here, anyway.”

The closure of El Camino Real, now 3 weeks old, has been an inconvenience for drivers. But for merchants along the main streets that lead to El Camino Real, the closure is becoming an economic disaster.

The coastal highway was shut down Feb. 5, when geologists found that the cliffs over El Camino Real were riddled with crevices and threatening to tumble. So far, city officials say their best guess is that the highway will be closed for up to two months, while work crews try to stabilize the bluffs.

Not only has the closure isolated a handful of stores near the barricaded road, but the traffic jam it created down the road--near the Avenida Pico interchange--is driving customers from stores there.

“It’s kind of like South Coast Plaza at Christmastime,” said Sid Beaty, store director of Ralphs Grocery Co. “It takes a considerable amount of time to get in and out of the parking lot. Our sales have definitely been hit in a negative way.”

Both Nudo and Beaty were among the merchants invited to City Hall on Wednesday to discuss problems caused by the closure, but nothing was resolved.

To Nudo, a barricaded El Camino Real means that thousands of cars that used to pass by every day are now taking their business elsewhere.

“We’re in limbo here,” said Nudo, owner of the Herbie Fletcher Surf Shop on North El Camino Real. “People are avoiding this end of town, and the business is really hurting.”

Nudo, who has owned the shop for 10 years, estimated that receipts have plummeted 80% since the closure.

“We expected a lot of business to come in over the three-day weekend, but it didn’t happen,” he said. “I don’t know what we’ll do if this goes on for months.”

Walk-in business has slowed to a standstill for Margaret Cortens, who owns Capistrano Realty across the street from the surf shop.

“We’ve been heavily impacted,” she said Monday. “Our business deals with a lot of walk-ins. We haven’t had any come in today.”

Meanwhile, on the other end of Avenida Pico near the Interstate 5 interchange, vendors are complaining about too much traffic.

The city was already in the middle of a $352,000 project to widen freeway ramps when they were forced to close El Camino Real.

The construction and the extra traffic created by drivers trying to find alternative north-south routes have combined to create a traffic nightmare in the area.

Instead of trying to brave the traffic jams, merchants say, people are just staying away.

“I think business has been a lot slower” since the closure, said Jill Gordon, assistant manager at Aaron Brothers Art Marts. “I know that our customers are coming in frustrated and so are the employees--everybody’s frustrated.”