SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : A Prickly Battle Over Home Ends

After 14 years and $800,000 in city expense, the Battle of Porcupine Hill is over.

The City Council voted 3 to 2 Tuesday night to give up the fight to save a ridgeline and to allow developer Robert Maurer to build his dream home on a hill overlooking Capistrano Valley. Tuesday’s vote followed more than five hours of negotiations last Friday conducted by Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert O. Frazee.

“It was time to have the issue settled,” Councilman Gary L. Hausdorfer said. “It made no sense to go to trial. The costs involved had become ridiculous.”

The council vote ended one of the costliest legal battles ever for the city. Council members remain bitterly divided over who was the ultimate winner in the settlement, however.

Councilman Kenneth E. Friess, who cast a dissenting vote along with Councilman Jeff Vasquez, claimed that the city was the loser.

“We didn’t win anything. (Maurer) beat the hell out of us,” Friess said. “Basically, this was a business decision. We ran into a man with more money than the city. After all this, he gets a 13,000-square-foot house on the hill.”

The agreement calls for some of the 87 spindly date palms that earned the 42-acre hill its nickname to be moved. Many city residents thought the palms had been planted during the course of the battle as a snub to the city, something the Maurers adamantly deny.

The city also won assurances from Maurer that landscaping will “soften” the appearance of the home on the hilltop and that only a home, a 15,000-square-foot “barn” and two guest cottages will be constructed on the property.

“Anytime I can be a part of any process that puts one house on 42 acres with some ancillary residences, I think it’s a good deal,” Mayor Gil Jones said. “It’s a compromise, of course. But our ridgeline laws remain intact, and this sets no precedent.”

Although the protracted legal battle was actually three separate lawsuits, the main issue involved a city law that prevents any construction within 200 feet of specified ridgelines overlooking the city. That ridgeline protection law is 3 years old, but Maurer contended that he had an agreement with the city to build his home dating back to 1978.

It was at that time that Maurer, a local developer who was part of the original Mission Viejo Co. in the 1960s, built the subdivision called Belford Terrace. The project consisted of 64 lots, 63 of which were at the bottom of the hill, with the 64th to be the site of his own home on the hilltop.

Rather than face a potential challenge to its ridgeline law, which has never been tested in court, and millions of dollars in legal fees, the city settled.

“It became clear to us that, even if we had won, he could have moved 200 feet down the hill and built the biggest house he wanted,” Hausdorfer said. “From a broad perspective, the residents of this city can now rest assured that the majority of that property will remain in agricultural preserve in perpetuity.”

Mark Maurer, speaking for his father, Robert, said he was also glad “this has come to an end.”

“Our goal from the outset was to use the property as it was originally agreed upon,” Maurer said. “It was never an issue of extracting money from the city or the citizens of San Juan Capistrano or defeating the ridgeline law. It was purely a defense of our property rights.”

Vasquez, however, said he believes that the council’s decision will lead other property owners to push for ridgeline development.