SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : City Votes to Rezone Group’s Property

A South County religious group won an important victory this week in its nearly 6-year-old battle to turn a former egg ranch into a church site.

The City Council voted 3 to 2 to reclassify South Coast Christian Assembly’s 3.3-acre parcel near the north end of Avenida Los Cerritos from an agricultural zone to a public and institutional zone, which would allow the construction of a church. But the council stipulated that the church must first get access to the landlocked site via Rancho Viejo Road over the privately owned 100-acre Honeyman Ranch.

“Access is the key issue,” said City Councilman Jeff Vasquez, who along with Councilman Kenneth E. Friess and Mayor Gil Jones voted to approve the rezone. “I really feel that location would be a good location for a church if we can solve the access problem in a friendly manner with the Honeymans.”

Stuart Honeyman, a spokesman for the family that has owned the surrounding property for more than 50 years, called the rezone “premature.” Honeyman said the family is planning to develop a portion of the ranch and the process “will take time.”

Other Avenida Los Cerritos residents also spoke against the idea of a new church in the now rural neighborhood. Leonor E. Hammond, a 45-year resident of San Juan Capistrano who has lived on that street for 42 years, said the church “would change the very quiet neighborhood we’ve loved all these years.”

“We have six churches within a half-mile,” Hammond said. “Churches are fine, but I don’t think San Juan needs them all in one area.”

Councilmen Gary L. Hausdorfer and Jerry Harris both said they reluctantly opposed the rezone of the property.

“Nothing would make me happier than to have more churches in our city . . . but the problem is access,” Harris said.

Hausdorfer agreed the issue was not the church. “I don’t think there is a City Council member up here who would not support a new church in our town. I really think the issue is the introduction of a new use in an old neighborhood,” he said.