Now It’s Commuters Who Come Back to Capistrano

With its 225-year-old mission, its adobe homes and graceful, equestrian-oriented lifestyle, San Juan Capistrano stands as a piece of history amid the master-planned communities that have grown up around it.

But as the new towns have swelled, residents of San Juan Capistrano worry that their history-rich city is in danger of being overrun and overwhelmed by the fast-paced growth of South County.

As some see it, San Juan Capistrano is fast becoming the driveway--the doormat, some say--for residents scurrying home to Laguna Niguel, Mission Viejo and Dana Point.

“If you drive through our residential neighborhoods, you’ll see that our streets are not crowded,” said Mayor Wyatt T. Hart. “This city was well-planned. Our problem is the other communities.”

On any weekday afternoon, the tiny streets of downtown San Juan Capistrano are choked with commuters getting off Interstate 5 at Ortega Highway and heading to the new tracts. With more housing projects and road-widening jobs looming, city officials worry the problem may grow worse.

There are plans to widen Ortega Highway, which cuts across the mountains to fast-growing Riverside County. There are proposals to build or tunnel a new road through the nearby Cleveland National Forest. And there are the out-of-county trash trucks that chug into town in the early morning, heading to the landfill just east of the city limits.

Hart said that widening Ortega, a winding mountain road that ends at the foot of Mission San Juan Capistrano, would only push the city toward the “failing point.” Of equal worry are the 14,000 homes that Rancho Mission Viejo wants to build over the next 30 years on nearby unincorporated land.

In recent months, the city has hired two teams of consultants to figure out strategies for protecting old San Juan from these and other projects.

One team is studying whether the city should annex a sprawling stretch of hillsides and ranchland at its eastern boundary to help control development. The other team, led by Lisa Mills, a former Orange County Transportation Authority chief executive, is looking at a host of proposed roadway improvements and trying to figure out how each would affect the city. From there, the consultants will draft a battle plan for the city.

“The real issue here is protecting our community from regional traffic and trying to reduce the congestion that already exists,” said Bill Huber, the city’s director of engineering and building. “That may mean taking a strong position on some projects, either in favor of or against. . . . But first we need to take a look at how all these projects come together collectively. Individually, they may not be a problem, but collectively you begin to see all the impacts.”

Finding a way to live with sprawl is an almost inevitable fact of life for historic communities, said Hamid Shirvani, Chapman University provost and an architecture and urban design expert.

“What San Juan Capistrano is facing now is something that began happening 50 years ago on the East Coast and other areas with an older history,” Shirvani said. “You have a historic community that was once surrounded by natural areas, and eventually development comes in and surrounds it.”

But there are ways to preserve these areas, he says. Boston, San Antonio and Charlottesville, Va., are prime examples. In all three cases, the historic communities have found ways to live among modern development.

San Juan’s success in doing the same, Shirvani said, will be largely dependent on its ability to negotiate with its neighbors, because most of the housing projects and road expansions that may affect the city the most are beyond its control.

“And we realize that,” said Jennifer Murray, San Juan Capistrano’s assistant city manager. “We have to be able to work with other government entities on these solutions. We can’t just do it alone.”

Some in town, however, say the city’s effort is too little and, possibly, too late.

“We have precious little time to preserve what we have left,” said Mark Nielsen, a co-chairman of Citizens Against Uncontrolled San Juan Expansion.

Nielsen said other quaint California communities like Carmel and Los Gatos were quick to create strict laws and development standards to ensure the towns stayed true to their village roots.

Carmel won’t allow chain and fast-food restaurants in its downtown village, for example. San Juan Capistrano, on the other hand, is teeming with such outlets, so many that one downtown avenue is known by locals as “Fast Food Row.”

And for years, Los Gatos has monitored development in neighboring communities and conducted studies to determine how each project will affect the city--something San Juan Capistrano is just now beginning to do.

“Certainly, we would have liked to see some of these things being done sooner,” Nielsen said. . . . “But it’s important the staff be given clear direction now on the city’s philosophy of preserving the village and its history.”

Although some criticize the city for becoming a gateway to neighboring communities, Nielsen said there are things that San Juan Capistrano has done well over the years. Protecting its hilltops from development is one--an effort that dates to 1974.

“We’ve gone to court to prevent development on some of the city’s ridgelines, and the outcome has been in the city’s favor,” Murray said. “Development has been minimized because of our success in court.”

The city also created a Cultural Heritage Commission to identify historic structures and recommend preservation efforts, as well as programs to protect the city’s agricultural and equestrian areas.

“That kind of commitment and energy and fortitude is what’s really needed now,” Nielsen said.

City officials are optimistic that the region will find ways to cure the congestion, and they are looking to their consultants to pinpoint the projects that might offer relief. Even something as minor as building a freeway offramp at the southern end of town would help, they say.

And any project that might worsen congestion in town will be fought, Hart said. “We’ll go to court again, absolutely . . . to protect the city’s charm and historic values.”

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Under Pressure

San Juan Capistrano officials have hired consultants to study whether road widening projects and other development would worsen congestion in town. Some residents feel the character of the city is at stake.