Los Rios Advisory Panel Disbanded

Expressing concern about potential conflicts of interest, the City Council has disbanded the long-standing Los Rios Review Committee, which since 1977 has advised San Juan Capistrano on issues relating to the oldest neighborhood in California.

“By maintaining the committee, we place members in jeopardy with the Fair Political Practices Committee,” Councilman David M. Swerdlin said.

The panel, made up of people who live in the 200-year-old Los Rios neighborhood or own property there, came under scrutiny because FPPC rules dictate that commissioners cannot vote on issues concerning property lying within 300 feet of their own.

Though the committee’s powers were limited in 1993 to comply with that regulation, many people felt that members were still exercising too much control over development in the neighborhood.

After disbanding the committee, the council transferred its responsibilities to the Cultural Heritage Commission and appointed former Los Rios Chairman Bill Hardy as a new member of the cultural group.

Hardy, who owns Los Rios property, agreed that the committee should be dissolved. But he also expressed concern that the neighborhood, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, might become overly commercialized.

Several residents have indicated to him that they may form a grass-roots organization to keep tabs on the neighborhood’s development, Hardy said.

“I feel that the majority of residents want to keep it the way it is,” he said.