Citizens Committee to Review San Juan Redevelopment : Preservation: The 10-member panel will recommend changes in a historic-area plan. It will include archeology experts, historians and merchants.

In an attempt to build community-wide support for a downtown redevelopment project, the Community Redevelopment Agency on Tuesday voted to form a citizens’ committee that will review the plan and recommend changes.

Officials this week released plans to convert a 6-acre parcel, located one block south of Mission San Juan Capistrano, into a Historic Town Center that would pay tribute in a parklike setting to the city’s roots.

Plans call for a creating a 3.5-acre archeological park, preserving two historic homes and keeping intact most of the Redevelopment Agency-owned businesses along the city’s main thoroughfare, Camino Capistrano. The project also proposes to realign Ortega Highway south to Verdugo Street.

The redevelopment agency directors, who are also council members, voted to form a 10-member committee that will include archeology experts, historians, merchants and citizens. Appointments to the advisory committee will be made at an unspecified future date.

“I would really like to pull from all facets of the community because everybody has something at stake,” Mayor Gary L. Hausdorfer said.

City officials formulated this latest redevelopment plan after an earlier proposal was met with ardent opposition. That plan, drawn up in 1985, called for a 125-room hotel, restaurants and retail shops. Opponents argued that the development was too intense for a historic area that contains archeological artifacts.

But members of Friends of San Juan Capistrano, a group formed in 1987 to oppose original redevelopment plans and to promote historic preservation, praised the current plan.

“Once again, San Juan Capistrano takes a bold step forward for preservation and sensitive community planning,” said Mark Clancey, president of Friends of San Juan Capistrano.

The advisory panel will review the plan, identify potential problems and recommend changes, City Manager Stephen B. Julian said.

The redevelopment agency also pushed for creation of a nonprofit organization that would oversee and raise money for further archeological exploration of the Historic Town Center.

Since January, 1988, the city has spent $1 million on archeological excavations of the site, which uncovered Indian artifacts and building foundations from the late 18th Century. Portions of the area are shown on early 19th-Century maps as a town square that extended from the mission grounds.

But city officials are reluctant to spend more of the taxpayers’ money to explore the site beyond what is legally required for environmental documentation, Friess said.

Times correspondent Len Hall contributed to this report.