San Clemente Council Votes for Festival Talks

San Clemente’s City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to negotiate with the Festival of the Arts, a longtime Laguna Beach summer event, about relocating to a site near the new Talega development.

Festival President Sherri Butterfield said the art organization had inquiries from Long Beach and Del Mar about relocating but would prefer to stay in coastal Orange County.

Festival officials agreed to negotiate exclusively with San Clemente for 90 days and during that time not to discuss long-term lease possibilities with any other city, including Laguna Beach.

The festival now leases 5.6 acres in Laguna Beach, which has been its home for 68 years.

In a federal lawsuit filed against that city in December, the festival alleged that its rent is discriminatory compared to what other groups pay and a violation of the organization’s 1st Amendment rights. Wednesday’s agreement with San Clemente does not rule out talks with Laguna Beach on that issue.

Butterfield wrote to San Clemente officials Jan. 25 asking to negotiate exclusively with them on the possibility of relocating. Early talks have focused on a 30-acre site near the Talega development, where the festival would have room to build a 3,000-seat amphitheater, a 400-seat enclosed theater, a 15,000-square-foot museum and a restaurant.

According to a San Clemente city staff report, the facilities that the festival is proposing there could be completed by spring 2003 and would cost about $30 million. Most of the money would come from private donations, sponsors and fund-raising activities, the report says.

San Clemente officials say the city could reap economic and cultural benefits from the festival, which draws more than 230,000 visitors annually and would generate business for local hotels, restaurants and shops.