SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Council to Consider Ridgeline Project

It was a small victory, but the developers of a proposed custom home project along the border with San Clemente called it a start.

Irvine-based Concorde Development last week won City Council approval to put its proposal into the city planning process. The council voted 3 to 2 to study an amendment to the city’s General Plan that would allow Concorde to develop 87 custom homes on 100 acres in the hills above Camino Las Ramblas.

After several rebuffs by the council during the past 12 months that resulted in a still-pending lawsuit against the city, Concorde president Dennis Gage said he hopes he can now convince the council that his plan is feasible. Gage’s proposal involves altering a ridgeline on his property that has already been designated as off-limits for development under the city’s ridgeline protection ordinance.

In essence, Gage would trade another knoll in the area, which he calls “a more significant land feature,” for the right to build on his property.

“This has been done in the city many times. The ridgelines were always a subjective decision,” Gage said. “All we are trying to do is build the best product for that site.”

Gage said his project, which he compared to the posh Hunt Club along Ortega Highway in San Juan Capistrano, will “disturb only 33% of the 100-acre parcel.

“This has never been an issue of density, it’s always been an issue of land-form designation,” Gage said.

In exchange for the right to build, Concorde would extend Camino Las Ramblas approximately one-quarter mile to city-owned, undeveloped property near the Prima Deshecha landfill.