Initial Marblehead Plan to Be Unveiled Tonight

A regional commercial center, 500 single-family homes and a bluff-side, ocean-view park are the key elements in the latest development proposal for the 250-acre Marblehead Coastal property.

The long-awaited plan, to be unveiled tonight in a special meeting at the San Clemente Community Center, is billed as one of the last major developments along Orange County’s coast.

“This is a sizable development for any community and obviously one for a city of the size and makeup of San Clemente,” Mayor Steve Apodaca said Wednesday. “A development of this scope will have a tremendous impact on our community, and that’s one of the things we will be looking at as it goes through the [planning] process.”

The boundaries for the prized piece of property, owned for 15 years by the Irvine-based Lusk Holding Co., begin at the sandstone bluffs above El Camino Real in San Clemente’s historic North Beach area and end a mile inland at Interstate 5.

Marblehead Coastal, an adjunct to another Marblehead project on the inland side of the freeway, is the area proposed a decade ago for the Richard M. Nixon presidential library--which wound up in Yorba Linda--as well as a Chapman University satellite campus, a luxury resort hotel, 1,200 homes and a championship golf course.

The loss of the Nixon library doomed the initial development proposal, said Jim Johnson, chief executive office for Lusk. He said the new plan reflects what Lusk believes the current market will bear.

“The changing times and the economy dictate things like that,” said Johnson, noting that Lusk will probably build a “wide variety of types” of homes. The company is working with a shopping center developer for a 61-acre commercial project, he said.

But even without the scope of the earlier proposals, the development of the Marblehead coast will serve as a cornerstone for the city’s future, Apodaca said.

The first viewing tonight begins a likely three- to four-year planning process, said Mike Burke of Robert Bein, William Frost & Associates, the engineering consultants for the project. Burke stressed that the proposal is preliminary and it is too early to talk about the cost of the overall project or the homes.

“The purpose of this meeting is to give the public the opportunity to identify what they want to see addressed,” Burke said. “People can raise any issue they feel is appropriate.”

The city intends to begin formal public hearings in October, Burke said. The California Coastal Commission must also review and approve the project before construction can start, he said.

An important environmental feature of the property is scenic Marblehead Canyon, which starts near the intersection of Avenida Pico and El Camino Real and winds through the heart of the property, bisecting the two residential areas. The canyon includes the tiny succulent called Blochman’s Dudleya, a plant with white and yellow flowers that is endemic to the California coast.

Plans for the canyon include a wetlands habitat that the Lusk Co. proposes to preserve and enhance, said Bonnie McKenna, the city’s principal planner for the project.

“The canyon is really a central feature of the whole plan and connects the commercial center to North Beach by a trail system,” McKenna said, noting that the canyon area can be used as a “recreation corridor.”

Ken Fortune, former president of the South Coast Audubon Society, said his group had talked to the Lusk Co. in the past about locating a nature center somewhere on the property. That’s something the group would probably pursue now, he said.

“There is still no nature center in south Orange County,” said Fortune, a San Clemente resident who hasn’t yet seen the proposal. “But I think for a project like this, we will open up our scope and look at its impacts on the community as a whole. How is it going to affect the city’s sewage and runoff to the ocean, and is it going to make money for the city or cost us money?”

Although there is a one-acre commercial project proposed for Avenida Pico near North Beach, the principal 75,000-square-foot commercial center is planned for 61 acres along the freeway.

Access to the center will be from a new offramp at Avenida Vista Hermosa, but the details of the commercial development will be decided in the future, David N. Lund, San Clemente’s community development director, said.

Lund said the Lusk Co. will provide the city with a market study to show what type of commercial development would best complement the city’s existing retail mix.

“Clearly, the opportunity to give our residents additional retail shopping is critical, partly because we lose so much sales tax to other communities,” Lund said.

Burke said about 30% of the entire property is proposed for open space. He compared the beachfront park to Salt Creek Park in Dana Point, an area terraced down from the bluffs designed for picnicking and perhaps court games like basketball.

The public meeting where the plan will be unveiled is set for 7 p.m. at the center, 100 Avenida Seville.