SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Rejection Urged for Care-Center Project

A proposed care center for senior citizens being developed by the Crystal Cathedral Ministries in Rancho Capistrano should be scaled back to conform to city standards, the city design review commission recommended this week.

The commission voted 2-1 Monday to recommend that the County Planning Commission reject plans for the proposed three-story, 356-unit center, which would exceed the city’s two-story, 35-foot limit. Rancho Capistrano, which is located on an island of unincorporated territory northwest of the city, lies under county jurisdiction but is also within San Juan Capistrano’s sphere of influence.

“The land-use code in San Juan Capistrano is very specific. It says no building shall be more than two stories and 35 feet in height,” said Roy Nunn, the commission chairman. “We have one three-story building in the city, and it was a mistake. The city has made it very clear that (existing) project, and only that project, should be allowed to go over two stories.”

Nunn, a local architect and former city planning commissioner, added that his vote should not be construed as opposition to the overall project.

“This was meant as no prejudice against the project itself. I honestly feel that type of housing is needed in the community, but this is too big and too massive,” he said.

The commission’s recommendation will be forwarded to the county planning commission, which earlier ruled that because the project was within the city’s sphere of influence, its design should adhere to city standards.

The 13-acre center is only one component of a larger project to be spread out on the 94-acre ranch, which was donated to the Schuller Ministries--now known as the Crystal Cathedral Ministries--by the Crean family in 1982. The Schuller Ministries then purchased the adjacent 77-acre Bathgate Ranch, which is inside San Juan Capistrano’s city limits, in 1989.

Among the components of the project are a new administration building, a cemetery, a mortuary/chapel, a mausoleum and a maintenance building, in addition to the care center.

Mark Clancey, president of the Friends of Historic San Juan Capistrano, a local preservationist group, applauded the commission’s recommendation. Clancey has sharply criticized the size of the proposed care center.

“We’ve never opposed the project itself. The site is an appropriate spot for such a facility,” Clancey said. “But where we part company is on the density, height, scale and mass of the project.

“We’re not asking them not to build it, or to go elsewhere, but to just do a project San Juan Capistrano can live with, within our building standards and height limits.”