SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Conceptual Plan for Downtown Project Approved; Developer Sought

After nearly two decades of public debate, the City Council has approved a conceptual plan for a project envisioned as the centerpiece of the downtown renaissance.

The council voted 4 to 1 Tuesday to pass a plan that calls for a 92-room inn, a parking structure, an archeological park and 25,000 square feet of retail space.

The project, which still needs a developer, would be on six acres straddling El Camino Real, south of Ortega Highway.

City Councilman Gil Jones cast the lone dissenting vote. He said he favored an option that would create a pedestrian plaza in front of the Mission San Juan Capistrano by rerouting a section of Ortega Highway.

“I’m thinking about the legacy we are going to leave for our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren,” Jones said.

But other council members said the $1.6 million in extra costs for a pedestrian plaza and roadwork would be too much of a burden on city coffers. The city owns the land, but is seeking a developer to build most of the project. The city would develop the park next to the the historical house called the Blas Aguilar Adobe.

“We have gone through very horrendous battles and agonizing meetings trying to get here,” Mayor Carolyn Nash said.

In the late 1980s, a proposal for a 125-room hotel and 70,000-square-foot retail complex drew strong opposition before it was dropped by the city.

This time, city officials proceeded more deliberately, seeking advice from competing interests, such as preservationists and downtown business leaders.

The plan approved Tuesday was the most popular to come out of a series of workshops over the past two years.