San Clemente Pier Hotel Scuttled
When developer Cliff Ratkovich stood on a grassy bluff overlooking the San Clemente Pier last spring, he envisioned a sparkling seaside resort that would blend with the city’s Mediterranean style.
What he did not envision was the animosity he would encounter from local residents who saw his $55-million Pier Bowl project as an oversize development scheme that has no place in their small town.
Discouraged by opposition to his plan to build a 160-room hotel complex next to the historic Casa Romantica and within walking distance of the pier, Ratkovich on Tuesday unexpectedly scrapped the project.
Ratkovich’s decision came less than a week after he had said he was optimistic that he could reach an agreement with the city to build the hotel and retail complex. But after investing more than $200,000 for design work, Ratkovich said, he realized that the project is doomed and decided to move on to “other opportunities.”
“We have made it a company policy to pursue developments only in communities that warmly embrace us and invite us in,” Ratkovich said Tuesday from his Los Angeles office.
Opponents fought the project on the grounds that it would have caused unbearable traffic congestion, transformed the quiet beachfront community into a tourist attraction and eliminated the ocean view from Avenida Del Mar, the entrance route to the pier area.
“We are a bastion. We are an oasis,” said Joseph Barton, president of the 650-member San Clemente Homeowners Assn., one of the organizations that opposed the project. “We are not Newport Beach or Coney Island. We are more like Carmel. And that is what is attractive about this area.”
The project, designed on six city-owned acres, would also have included 60 condominiums, an underground parking garage, restaurants, boutiques, clothing stores and offices.
“It was just overkill,” Barton said. “They dumped everything in here. They saturated the Pier Bowl area with buildings.”
Critics had also complained that the project would destroy the quiet ambience of the city-owned, historic Casa Romantica, once the home of San Clemente founder Ole Hanson. Designs called for the mansion to become part of the hotel.
City Manager Michael W. Parness said the city will renew its search for a developer of the property.
“We’ll have to regroup,” Parness said. “I’m not sure what will happen.”
City officials said they will consider sending out bids for developers willing to design a smaller complex that would not obstruct the view or generate intolerable traffic.
Ratkovich’s pullout in the face of public opposition is the latest in a growing number of reversals for South County developers.
In San Juan Capistrano, voters chose last month to preserve open space rather than allow developers to complete plans for office and retail development near Interstate 5.
In Laguna Beach, the City Council is using its power to condemn property to prevent developers from building in the Laguna Canyon area. The council is also negotiating with the Irvine Co. to buy parts of Laguna and Laurel canyons to stave off development.
And in Mission Viejo, voters chose not to oust Councilman Robert A. Curtis despite heavy campaigning by the Mission Viejo Co. Curtis earned the company’s opposition, in part, by questioning developer agreements that were pushed through the county government just days before city incorporated in 1988.
