San Clemente Decides Casa Will Best Serve City as a Restaurant

With its tiled courtyard, thick whitewashed walls and sweeping ocean views, Casa Romantica--the bluff-top house built 70 years ago by San Clemente’s founder--is an architectural and historic gem.

Soon, perhaps, it also will be the site of Southern California’s latest upscale Mexican restaurant.

To the disappointment of local preservationists who have been fighting this issue for years, the San Clemente City Council voted 3 to 2 Tuesday to lease the landmark building to Doug Cavanaugh, founder of the Ruby’s diner chain.

The city, through its Redevelopment Agency, owns the house, which was home to founder Ole Hanson from 1928 to 1932. But it still owes about $1 million on the mortgage, and needs at least $500,000 in repairs and upgrades.

A catering company leases the site for weddings now, but the $100,000 annual rent is barely enough to service the mortgage debt, said Councilman Steve Apodaca, who backed the restaurant use.

“I think we’re in danger of losing the Casa if we don’t find some way for it to get opened up to the public and to generate the revenue necessary to restore and maintain it,” he said. “Only a business is going to give us true public access.”

But preservationists who packed the council meeting shuddered at the thought of hordes of customers trampling over the historic hardwood floors or spilling margaritas on the hand-painted tiles.

They also objected to modifications proposed by Cavanaugh, such as building a 2,000-square-foot kitchen next to the home.

“It isn’t Mt. Vernon but he was the founder of this city and he was a very exceptional man,” said Ray LaForce, a member of the city’s historic preservation society and an adamant opponent of the restaurant.

“We don’t think it’s appropriate for the home of the founder of the city to be treated as a commercial development. It needs a little different approach that’s commensurate with its importance.”

A review committee considered three proposals for the site--one from Cavanaugh, one from a wedding production company, and another from the nonprofit Heritage Foundation of San Clemente, which would have turned the house into a cultural and arts center while continuing to rent it for weddings.

Cavanaugh earned top scores from the committee, largely because he had a good track record in running similar businesses.

His proposal--which originally called for 178 seats indoors and 60 outdoors--stressed the historic significance of the Hanson house. Cavanaugh said the restaurant would not have a bar, and would use period furnishings. He also agreed to reduce indoor seating by about 25% at the committee’s request.

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Two rooms would be set aside for cultural and historical exhibits, and the restaurant would host occasional concerts and community events, according to the proposal. Cavanaugh pledged to invest $750,000 in upgrades, including earthquake retrofitting, while another $500,000 will come from state grants.

“To respect the heritage of that beautiful architecture is our goal,” Cavanaugh said in his proposal.

But opponents rejected any restaurant use of the site, arguing that it is not an appropriate use of the space where Hanson spun his dreams for a new kind of seaside city.

“This does not dignify the heritage of our community,” said G. Wayne Eggleston, director of the Heritage Foundation. “We just don’t feel it needs to be commercialized in this way.”

Because the house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the restaurant plans will now be subject to a series of reviews that could last as long as a year.

Apodaca said the concept of using the space for a restaurant stemmed from a General Plan review in 1991, and had gone through a series of public meetings and workshops at that time.

“That’s why it sometimes rankles me a bit when people say you really need to get the public’s input,” he said. “We did that years ago. To try to stop the process now and start all over again would doom us to repeat history.”

But LaForce, for one, said she’s not about to surrender.

“We’re not giving up that this is a done deal,” she said. “They still have quite a few hurdles to go over.”