Some Fear Development in Dana Point : Residents and Firms Could Be Uprooted

A warm morning sun was shining into the living room of her apartment on downtown Del Prado Avenue, but Louise Cole was not feeling rosy.

These were supposed to be the golden years for the 76-year-old widow, but her recent knee surgery and the thought that she may be uprooted from her home of 22 years had her feeling cold and uneasy.

“I’m terrified,” Cole said. “I’m hearing that they may take my home and my livelihood away from me.”

Cole is one of a growing number of residents and business owners in this coastal city who fear the consequences of the city’s ambitious plans for redeveloping parts of the old downtown area.

Although officials are uncertain exactly how the face of the city will change over the coming years, they have targeted four parts of town for possible redevelopment: the Capistrano Beach “bowl” area (a mixture of small homes and family-run businesses below Interstate 5 near Doheny State Park), the so-called couplet area (a reference to the split of Coast Highway into two one-way streets) where Louise Cole lives, a crowded mix of apartments and homes called the Lantern district, and the bluffs area overlooking Dana Point Harbor.

“There are all kinds of ideas floating around now,” said City Councilman Michael Eggers. “Some people are talking about a pedestrian mall in the couplet area. Some have suggested taking the couplet out and redoing Coast Highway. What we’re doing is putting all the ideas out on the table and taking a look at them.”

Longtime residents complain it is the uncertainty of the future that causes them fear, and they worry that redevelopment itself gives the city powers over their lives, homes and businesses.

“It gives three people, a city council majority, the power over all that we have established here for so many years,” said a downtown business owner who asked not to be identified.

The feelings are the same down in the Capistrano Beach bowl. At Lucy’s El Patio Cafe on Doheny Park Road, owner Jack Saunderson is plain mad.

He doesn’t like the idea that his family’s 40-year-old business may be forced to move.

“My place, it’s home to me and my family,” said Saunderson, 34, whose mother, Lucy, opened the restaurant in 1951 and still works there at age 75. “And now the city has the power to tell us we have to leave? We were here when all this was orange groves, way before the freeway went through.”

City officials readily admit that there are changes in store for certain parts of the six-square-mile town. Although Dana Point is a historic community that dates back to the 1880s, it is a young city, incorporated in January, 1989. It is in the process of writing its first general plan, often called the blueprint of a city.

Concurrently, the city has established the City Council as directors of a 35-year, $241.5-million community redevelopment agency that gives them the power to enforce that general plan.

Redevelopment, officials say, is necessary if the city is to grow and thrive in the coming years.

City Manager William O. Talley said all the redevelopment agency will do is help finance what the general plan dictates. And that plan is being concocted with the help of the city residents through a series of community meetings.

“The general plan will reflect what the people want and that will direct the redevelopment effort,” Talley said. “The community has to demand what we do, this is not something the city is doing on its own.”

But some people in town are not so sure the process has been that simple or democratic. Many, such as Cole and Saunderson, claim they were never told of any community meetings where they could voice their concerns.

“I hadn’t even heard about any meetings until one of my neighbors told me my restaurant was in the middle of a redevelopment area and I may be out of here,” Saunderson said. “I took a survey that day of my customers and no one had received any letters from the city informing them of any meetings.”

City Councilwoman Karen Lloreda, who lives in Capistrano Beach, says she has urged her neighbors to take part in the process.

“It is still early and nothing has been finalized yet,” said Lloreda, a first-year councilwoman who was elected through the support of many of the Capistrano Beach residents and business owners. “But people here need to get involved. There will be some changes made.”

At Serra Lumber in Capistrano Beach, adjacent to the railroad tracks, manager Russ Primrose does not like to hear talk of change. His business relies on a railroad spur that juts off the main line into his yard for deliveries.

“Our business depends on the railroad as do other businesses in the area,” Primrose said. “That’s where we get 90% of our lumber. There’s nowhere else between Fullerton and Oceanside that we could relocate.”

Talley admits that some people in these areas could be uprooted if their homes or businesses do not conform to the new land uses established in the new general plan.

“One of the things this city has to face is what is best for the long term, for the next 20 or 30 years,” he said. “But this is based on reason and logic. We don’t pick on people, that would be crazy.”

Cole, who owns a one-block section of Del Prado that her late husband bought for her retirement, may be one of those forced out. Her spotless apartment, which is part of a building she owns, sits in a downtown area that is being eyed as a commercial center.

“The thought of moving scares me to death,” she said. “I moved here because this is where (she and her late husband) wanted to live out our years. I don’t think this is fair.”

Saunderson shares her sentiments. Fair market value is not a term that sits well with Saunderson.

“Fair market value? How do you put a value on a business that’s been in the family for 40 years?” he asked.