Plans for Arts Center Displayed to Clarify Stakes in Recall Vote

Plans were unveiled Saturday to transform an empty San Clemente hilltop into a $30-million cultural landmark that would serve as the new home for the Festival of Arts and include an amphitheater, a museum, arts institute and seasonal gardens.

The sprawling complex would be on 41 acres east of Interstate 5 and would feature a series of red-tiled buildings with Spanish Colonial arches, linked by walking paths, gardens, open space and exhibit space for artists.

The Festival of Arts Board of Directors and the San Clemente Chamber of Commerce displayed the proposal at a private party Saturday, admitting that it must still raise the money needed to build the facility.

“Finally, we’ve given birth,” said festival President Sherri M. Butterfield, who is also the mayor of Mission Viejo. “It looks amazing.”

The unveiling comes six days before the 2,700 voting members of the Festival of Arts decide whether to recall Butterfield and four other board members who support the move. At issue is the board’s decision to move the Festival of Arts to San Clemente from its 68-year-old home in Laguna Beach.

If the recall is successful, new board members would take office and likely kill the plans.

Backers of the move, including San Clemente officials, say it would allow the Festival of Arts to expand from an annual summer arts show to a year-round venue complete with an exhibit hall, an art school and an upscale restaurant.

Critics reject the plan, arguing that the event should remain in Laguna Beach because of its long standing in the community.

“It might be a lovely vision, but the festival belongs in Laguna Beach, not San Clemente,” said Sherry Salito-Forsen, a stained-glass artist, while looking at the drawings.

Butterfield and other project backers said they rolled out their plans Saturday so that members of the festival would have a clear choice before they cast their recall ballots.

“Certainly if there’s a recall, most of this can’t happen,” she said. “We had this [unveiling] to say to people, ‘Here’s your choice.”’

She and others were optimistic that the $30 million could be raised through donation and corporate sponsorship and that the project could be completed by 2003.

The drawings, which Butterfield said cost the festival about $75,000, were developed by architect John Sergio Fisher of the Tarzana-based Fisher Merriman Sehgal Yanez Inc. and landscape designer Kenneth K. Kammeyer of Corona. Fisher said he has helped render drawings for more than 100 cultural arts facilities around the world.

The plans include:

* A 3,000-seat amphitheater with glass panels that can be rolled up to prevent wind or rain from entering.

* An upscale restaurant with views of the Pacific Ocean.

* A 500-seat indoor theater designed to accommodate lectures, recitals, seminars and chamber music.

* A large outdoor exhibit area for as many as 160 artists as well as “demonstration areas” where visitors could watch artists create their works.

* A parking lot with 2,000 spaces.

* A school to host art seminars, lectures, classes and demonstrations.

San Clemente Mayor Susan Ritschel said she believes a Festival of Arts center would be a boon for the city.

“Certainly, we hope the festival will move,” she said. “Today will help toward that end. But if anything, it has focused our city on the potential for the site.”

The city believes the center would be a tourist mecca, generating $21 million annually in economic activity ranging from hotel bookings to retail sales, said David Lund, San Clemente public works director.

The festival board last month signed a tentative lease arrangement with San Clemente that calls for $1 of rent for each of the first two years. The rent would eventually rise to $100,000 a year.

Ballots for the board recall are scheduled to be sent out to the festival’s 2,700 voting members by Friday. Results of the election will be announced Oct. 17, Butterfield said.