Council Rejects Expansion for Tiny Naylor’s

The old and long vacant Tiny Naylor’s restaurant, a local landmark because of its location at the busy intersection of Ortega Highway, Del Obispo Street and Interstate 5, will remain boarded a while longer.

The City Council this week decided that plans to more than triple its size and create a commercial center was “too massive” for the site and sent the project back to the Planning Commission.

The action came in response to a protest of the project filed by Mark Clancey, president of Friends of Historic San Juan Capistrano.

“We do not oppose the development of the site,” Clancey said. “Rather, it’s the extent of that higher use and how it impacts the entire area. . . . It could set a precedent for other projects in the area.”

City Councilman Gary L. Hausdorfer agreed.

“It’s too big,” Hausdorfer said. “It looms too large over Del Obispo.”

Councilman Gil Jones said he supported the project in essence but agreed it needed to be moved back from Del Obispo.

“What we have there now needs to be changed. I think the massiveness along Del Obispo is the issue,” Jones said.

Alan Schwartz, who owns the 1.5-acre site, argued unsuccessfully that problems with the design were due to the irregular shapes inherent in the lot. Those lines created “an illusion” of massiveness, Schwartz claimed.

“It’s a very difficult site,” said Schwartz, who owns an Irvine development firm. “No lines are parallel or perpendicular to other lines on the street.”

City Councilman Lawrence F. Buchheim was the only council member who agreed and cast the lone dissenting vote.

Mayor Kenneth E. Friess abstained from voting due to a potential conflict of interest. Friess, a contractor, has worked for the owner of an adjacent lot that would be affected by the project, he said.