SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Concorde Homes Project Defeated

A developer’s proposal to convert 99 hillside acres in the southeast corner of the city into 76 custom-home sites has been denied by the City Council, the third rebuff of the project in the last five months.

The project, proposed by Concorde Development of Irvine for property owner Morris Misbin of San Juan Capistrano, was considered too dense and would require too much grading and alteration of the hillside, a majority of the council ruled this week. Council members Lawrence F. Buchheim, Jeff Vasquez and Gil Jones voted to deny the project, with Gary L. Hausdorfer and Kenneth E. Friess voting in its favor.

“I’d like to see less density up there, and they’re proposing a lot of cutting and slashing on the hills,” Buchheim said Wednesday. “We’ve kicked this thing around, back and forth, for quite a while and it got to the point where we were going nowhere.”

Homeowners in the Connemara tract, across Camino las Ramblas from the parcel, have steadfastly opposed the project and applauded its denial. But a frustrated Dennis Gage, president of Concorde Development, said he was considering a lawsuit.

“We’ve worked with the city on this project for three years, longer than a lot of the homeowners in Connemara have been there,” Gage said. “I think the message is out that the only way to get anything approved down there is through legal methods.”

Gage said his company “is committed” to making the project work.

Hausdorfer said he favors the project because Gage has proposed to extend Camino las Ramblas onto about 900 acres of open space that the city owns northeast of the parcel.