The Changing Face of San Juan Capistrano : * Here’s Hoping Impending Redevelopment Doesn’t Detract From Downtown’s Charm

For two decades, San Juan Capistrano has wrestled with the challenge of revitalizing its historic downtown in a way that is respectful of local tradition and character. The city seems poised now to at least do better than in the past, when redevelopment plans ran afoul of a late-blossoming preservationist movement.

This time, the city is taking some pride in having business leaders and preservationists involved much earlier in the planning. The other encouraging aspect of the current discussion is that there is a local developer, wealthy rancher Richard J. O’Neill, who has bid to buy a city block. The developer will at least have some familiarity with community history.

Residents have differing viewpoints on the need for redevelopment at all. But like it or not, redevelopment is basically a reality. The redevelopment agency’s ambitions matter when it owns a sizable chunk of the downtown. It owns 10 acres of city property straddling El Camino Real, just south of the 218-year-old Mission San Juan Capistrano.

But planners should keep in mind that San Juan Capistrano is one of the few locations in Orange County that has any identifiable historic sense of place. Much of the county is new with malls and housing tracts spread out in cookie-cutter style. When you have custody of a rare location, why not take advantage of the history instead of making it look like everyplace else? San Juan Capistrano would be wise to be respectful of the scale and history of its downtown.

It’s clear that opinions are sharply divided between those who think redevelopment has brought too much commercialization already and those who see redevelopment as the way into the future. Developing the area could be exciting, or it could be an overhaul that makes downtown San Juan Capistrano just another intersection in sprawling Southern California. The city ought to be able to find a tasteful approach.