San Clemente Coastal Site to Be Developed

One of this city’s last major stretches of undeveloped coastline is destined to become a large-scale housing project and resort hotel complex, according to plans unveiled by a developer.

Once considered a prime site for the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library, the towering 100-foot sandstone bluffs overlooking the ocean in north San Clemente will be part of a development of up to 500 homes, an 18-hole golf course and a major hotel, officials from the the Lusk Co., an Irvine-based developer, told city officials.

Ending months of speculation over the 253-acre site, known as the Marblehead Bluffs, Lusk Co. officials gave a sneak preview of the project at a joint meeting between the City Council and several city commissions.

In a short, five-minute presentation, company Vice President Don Steffensen told city officials the project would be “low-intensity” and boasted that the golf course would provide 60% open space.

“We’re very happy about this project,” Steffensen said on Thursday. “This is certainly a major development for the city and one of the last developable sections of coast in the county.”

The Lusk Co. official said he hopes to give more precise preliminary plans for the project to the city planning department in about a month, adding that it would probably take a year for the project to win approval from the city and the state Coastal Commission.

The plans marked a sharp downscale in density from the project that former president Richard Nixon walked away from in 1987.

After four years of negotiating talks between Nixon aides, the City Council and Lusk Co. officials over what was then planned as a 1,198-home project that included a hotel and 70 acres of commercial development, the former president decided to his library should be built in his hometown of Yorba Linda.

Councilman Tom Lorch said the scaled-down development would probably face lighter community opposition than the Nixon Library proposal.

“On the surface,” he said, “I don’t see it as a real controversial project.”

Lorch said his main concern was over losing wetlands and man-made canyons on the site that are home to a variety of wildlife.

“Maybe 15 years ago it wouldn’t add up to much,” he said, “but in today’s environmentally-sensitive climate it could mean something to people.”

The Lusk Co. came under heavy criticism recently during the emergency excavation of unstable cliffs on the Marblehead property that forced the closure of El Camino Real for several weeks beginning in February.

Citizens angered over the destruction of the scenic bluffs have accused the company of preparing the land for a major construction effort.

Don Steffensen, a Lusk Co. vice president, said the company decided to reveal its plans to set the record straight.

“This has been such a high-profile piece of land,” he said, “and there had been such an intense amount of speculation over what we are doing . . . that we thought we’d show some of the plans now.”