SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Redeveloped Sites Appreciate by 23%

Efforts to preserve historic properties and improve commercial sites have boosted property values to a new high of $240 million for the Community Redevelopment Agency, according to an annual fiscal report released this week.

The report shows that property values have increased by 23% since the end of the last fiscal year. There was a 3% gain in 1988-89, said Jeff Parker, assistant to the city manager.

Parker attributed the increase to the addition of three commercial centers downtown, where property improvements were partly funded by the redevelopment agency.

In addition, a Price Club built two years ago on agency-owned property and several other parcels generated about $1.5 million in property taxes for the agency, which was founded in 1982.

“This last year, property values were at a peak,” Parker said, noting that little property changed hands during the agency’s previous fiscal year. “But next year, we’ll probably see a small percentage (of increase) again because of the way things are going in the economy.”

New, revenue-generating shopping areas on Del Obispo Street include Plaza Del Obispo, home of a Marshall’s department store and a Wherehouse record shop, and the Seaside Ranchos Center, anchored by a Payless drugstore and a Miller’s Outpost. A third project, Franciscan Plaza with its Edwards cinemas on Verdugo Street, was not funded by the agency, but the agency shares in profits from a parking garage, Parker said.

Parker also noted gains from agency aid to the San Juan Corporate Plaza project at the corner of Junipero Serra and Rancho Viejo roads, where lanes and a traffic signal were added. And the Capistrano Business Center east of Interstate 5 on Ortega Highway is also contributing to recent profits.

Renovation of the 1895 Capistrano Depot in the last year included agency funding for seismic reinforcement and asbestos removal. A newly opened restaurant and lounge at the historic site is operated by private owners, but the redevelopment agency continues to own the land and buildings at the depot, which it bought in 1987.

The agency also continues to grapple with plans for a six-acre site just south of Mission San Juan Capistrano. Known as the Historic Town Center, the site contains many 18th-Century artifacts. The city has established an advisory committee to oversee plans for a park and museum in the district.

Meanwhile, the agency-owned Blas Aguilar Adobe, built in the early 19th Century, was added this year to the National Register of Historic Places. And the agency has spent nearly $500,000 on archeological exploration of historic properties and hired an archeological consultant.

Upcoming redevelopment listed in the report include:

* Designing an entryway to the Los Rios Historic District, the county’s oldest residential neighborhood.

* Circulating a master plan for a new civic center and cultural center at the old Capistrano Union High School site near the library.

* Redesigning Buchheim Field on old El Camino Real, in conjunction with a new drainage project in one of the city’s oldest settled areas.

* Building a gymnasium and swimming pool at Capistrano Valley High School, in an exchange agreement with Capistrano Unified School District for the future civic center site.