DANA POINT : Residents Protest Redevelopment Plan

An angry and frustrated crowd packed City Hall on Tuesday night to protest redevelopment plans.

Members of Concerned Citizens Against Redevelopment and many other speakers said City Council members are trying to reshape the city at residents’ expense by uprooting them from homes and businesses.

“I believe we should have a referendum on this,” resident Marie Ware Mayer said about redevelopment, bringing applause. “My nerves are shot because of this. It’s my property you’re trying to take away.”

Bradley Gross expressed surprise that redevelopment would be considered in such an upscale community: “We thought we bought into the California dream. Now we find out we live in a blighted area, we live in a slum.”

Before a city may redevelop, an area must be declared blighted. The city then may buy property at fair-market value--even from an unwilling seller.

Councilwoman Karen Lloreda acknowledged the concerns but blamed misinformation for most opposition.

The city is in the early redevelopment stages and only exploring the possibilities, she said earlier Tuesday. “I have heard the complaints, and I have mixed feelings, but it is my intent to proceed until we have more information. We’re still trying to determine whether redevelopment will pencil out for the city. I don’t think we can make that decision yet; it’s too premature.”

The target of most of the anger is a community redevelopment agency established last year, with the City Council as directors and a budget of $241.5 million. The agency has targeted four areas for possible redevelopment: the Capistrano Beach bowl--small homes and businesses below Interstate 5 near Doheny State Park; the couplet--downtown inside a split of Coast Highway into two one-way streets; the lantern district--a crowded mix of apartments and homes on the hillside above the couplet, and the bluffs--directly above Dana Point Harbor.

Tuesday’s council meeting followed a rally Friday by the Concerned Citizens at the Calvary Chapel in Capistrano Beach, where about 350 people heard speakers denounce redevelopment.

Jack Saunderson, chairman of the group and owner of El Patio Cafe in Capistrano Beach, said: “We tried to explain what happens to your rights if this law goes through. The city can control your business and your property rights. The agency just has too much power, and it can do whatever it wants to do with it.”

Mayor Bill Bamattre, who attended the Friday meeting, said many of those afraid of redevelopment are jumping ahead of the city: “The council has not addressed this issue on the same schedule the people have. They have gotten ahead of our schedule.

“There is no conspiracy, no secret plans.”