SAN CLEMENTE : City Council to Rule on Hotel Proposal

With the Planning Commission and city planning staff at odds over whether a 35-foot-high, 57-room hotel should be built, the City Council will have the final say on the project tonight.

The disagreement began in October, when a city design panel recommended rejecting plans for a Flagship Inn at Avenida Calafia and Avenida del Presidente.

Both the design panel and planning staff say the hotel proposal meets the minimum standards set by city ordinances--but just barely.

In July, 1989, the City Council adopted a resolution requiring commercial developments to not just meet, but exceed city guidelines. Planning staffer Jim Pechous said the hotel plans need more work.

“Based on the submittal, the design cannot afford one more foot of setback, another square foot of landscape, one less foot of building height or any addition of building,” Pechous said.

Although the design panel turned down the project a second time, the Planning Commission approved the hotel earlier this year.

“It complied with all the requirements, the building codes and our general plan,” Planning Commissioner Howard Revie said. “It sounded like a compatible use. There’s not a whole lot more that could be put at that site.”

The site is a vacant lot by the Avenida Calafia interchange off Interstate 5 where tourists exit to visit San Clemente State Beach.

Pechous called the location a “gateway for tourism” in San Clemente.

“It’s a very visible project,” he said. “That’s why it is important that it be done right.”