Care Needed in Los Rios Planning

With its adobe homes, jacaranda and pepper trees, and proximity to Mission San Juan Capistrano, the Los Rios Historic District in San Juan Capistrano is one of South County’s charms. But now longtime residents and admirers of the district are asking whether change is coming too fast and going too far for a residential neighborhood. A restaurant has opened, a gift shop is located near the Capistrano Depot and there are plans to move a historic Victorian home into the neighborhood and convert another structure into a tea house.

The larger question is whether San Juan Capistrano is pushing the line between charm and commercialism in a district that is feeling somewhat threatened. Earlier this month, the City Council extended a moratorium on permits for the sale of alcohol, and a planning study of the district is in the works.

Some like Steve Rios, an attorney whose ancestor helped found the mission, are concerned. He worries that, while visitors are welcome, things have become unmanageable on the weekends. Others, like former City Councilman Jeff Vasquez, say that the neighborhood has been saved by the development of small businesses. Yet he too worries about traffic and the use of alcohol on the streets.

There is little doubt about the true historic nature of the district. Some records place the adobe homes to 1794 in an area where Native Americans worked at the mission. And the neighborhood won a place on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

The neighborhood already has won one new lease on life when local opposition to a condominium complex plan led to the Los Rios Precise Plan, which imposed rules for preservation. Today, there are more subtle concerns--whether, for example, to allow waivers in requirements that owners of businesses live on premises. There is a feeling that pressures for commercial development are overwhelming the existing preservation plan.

The city is wise to take the appropriate time needed to assess where it wants to go. That way, it can evaluate such proposals as keeping cars out of the area, or whether an entirely new plan is warranted to keep pace with changed circumstances.