SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Council OKs Hillside Home Development

A controversial 79-unit, gated custom-home development in a rugged canyon at the city’s border with San Clemente won City Council approval this week, more than four years after it was proposed.

The council voted 4 to 1 Tuesday night to approve Irvine-based Concorde Development’s project on 99 acres of steep canyon hillsides at the end of Camino Las Ramblas. The vote came despite pleas by neighbors who said the project is too dense and will require large amounts of grading that could threaten the stability of the hilly area.

Councilman Gary L. Hausdorfer called the plan the best of several proposals for the area, noting that the claylike soils of South County make building anywhere risky.

“There is no plan that is perfect,” Hausdorfer said. “But there is not an area in the city that could be built on if we were concerned about soils only. . . . I think this is a reasonable use for this property.”

Councilman Jeff Vasquez, the lone dissenter, disagreed, saying the plan is better than earlier proposals but still intrudes on the city’s protected ridgeline areas.

“I think we have come a long way, but I really feel there is a better alternative out there,” Vasquez said. “This is a very tricky, difficult piece of property. Most people who go out and look at it say it’s an impossible place to build.”

Among those who spoke against the project are homeowners in the Connemara housing tract across from the development, as well as other nearby San Clemente residents.

Grading for the project will take place inside the protected 200-foot swath along the canyon’s ridgelines, but no homes will be constructed in that area, said Dennis Gage, president of Concorde Development.

It will be six to eight months before work starts, Gage said. A grading plan and a final tract map still must be approved by the city.

Homes are expected to sell for $500,000 to $600,000 and the project will ultimately mean nearly $1 million in developer fees to the Capistrano Unified School District. As a requirement for development, Concorde will also have to pay $2,000 for each unit--for a total of $158,000--to the city’s fund for low- and moderate-income housing.

Concorde will also have to extend Camino Las Ramblas through Deep Canyon at the rear of the project area to the city’s open space acreage and riding trails. A flat staging area also will be graded by Concorde as a temporary storage space for horse trailers.