SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : City OKs Lot Paving Despite Opposition

Citing a lack of evidence that a Mission San Juan Capistrano graveyard had ever occupied a portion of a now-vacant lot, the City Council has approved paving the site for a parking lot.

In a 4-1 vote last week, the council denied an appeal filed by residents and members of the Juaneno Band of Indians to reduce the size of the planned 90-space parking lot at El Camino Real and El Horno Street.

When completed, the lighted parking lot will serve the San Juan Capistrano Library and the mission church, each of which attract thousands of visitors each year. The one-acre patch of dirt and gravel has long been used as an unofficial parking lot for the area.

A residents’ group said it had uncovered records dating to 1813 indicating a portion of the lot had been used at one time as the mission’s New Cemetery.

“The site is a cultural and historical landmark,” said homeowner Patrick Crowley.

Councilman Kenneth E. Friess was the lone dissenter in the vote, saying he thought the city could redesign the lot to take into account residents’ concerns.

“We have a need for this facility, there’s no question about that,” he said. “But I don’t think this quite makes it.”

In response to complaints by residents, however, the council did agree to place a historical marker about the Juaneno Indians at the site--which some historians believe may have once been a burial ground for the Juanenos--add more landscaping and use lighting fixtures that might better blend with the neighborhood’s mission style.

In May, residents of the city’s downtown Mission Hill and Mission Flats neighborhoods, led by Crowley, filed an appeal with the council to preserve about a third of the one-acre lot where they believe the cemetery was located. The group also wanted to save the old pepper and ash trees and create a small park.

Roberta Greenwood, an archeologist hired by the city to review the issue, said she could find no evidence to suggest there ever was a “consecrated cemetery” at the location. “I do not believe the city is endangering any significant cultural resources,” she told the council.

Until February, the land was owned by Mission San Juan Capistrano and was once used as a storage yard.

Under a new agreement, the city will gain title to the property in exchange for paying the estimated $160,000 to build the parking lot.

City officials have been considering a lot at the site since 1980, when the Roman Catholic bishop of Orange first asked to build a 104-space parking lot.

Construction on the lot could start by the end of the summer, officials said.