SAN CLEMENTE : Hotel Sent Back to Drawing Board

The City Council has rejected plans for a 57-room hotel, saying the developer needs to improve the design.

Although plans for the three-story hotel met city codes, City Council members want the project to exceed the minimum standards set for commercial development.

City planner Jim Pechous, who opposes the project, said the hotel design could not afford “one more foot of setback, another square foot of landscape, one less foot of building height or any addition of building” and still meet the codes.

Councilman Brian Rice said, “There are a lot of things that are being maximized here at the cost of parking and landscape.”

The hotel was to be built near a residential neighborhood at the corner of Avenida Califia and Avenida del Presidente.

Pechous said the intersection serves as a gateway for tourists using the San Clemente State Beach, located about a mile from the proposed hotel.

Architect Frank Montesinos disagreed with Pechous’ opinion that the plans were too elaborate for the site.

“The use is ideal,” he said. “We are not creating a massive project. We are creating a nice project.”

The council’s decision reversed an earlier vote of the Planning Commission, which unanimously approved the project Jan. 25.