Whispering Hills Set for Nov. 5 Ballot

San Juan Capistrano voters will have a chance Nov. 5 to stop a much-debated housing development that would also bring the city its first public high school in four decades.

A referendum placed on the ballot Tuesday by the City Council resulted from a petition drive that ended last week.

The new school--to be called San Juan Hills--was scheduled to open in September 2005 with Whispering Hills, an adjacent 175-home development in the eastern foothills. But a successful petition drive has placed the Whispering Hills project--and the school--on hold.

“You can’t open a school in November,” said Phil Schwartze, who works for the developer and is looking to regain a council seat in November. “So we’re probably delayed until at least 2006 now,” even if voters approve the project.

If residents reject Whispering Hills, the developer, Dennis Gage, would have to wait a year before introducing any project that might bring a high school to town.

Schwartze said not-in-my-backyard opponents may spoil San Juan Capistrano’s opportunity to have its own high school. “The city has been desirous of a school for 40 years,” Schwartze said. “Here we finally found one and these NIMBYs got it stopped.”

However, the citizens group that sponsored the petition drive, Citizens Against Uncontrolled San Juan Expansion, says the project would hurt the city by bringing crowding and traffic.

Moreover, they say, the City Council could have preserved the school by accepting a scaled-back plan of 103 homes. The council rejected the compromise last spring.

On Tuesday the council voted to allow the Capistrano Unified School District to write the ballot argument in favor of Whispering Hills. The citizens group will write the rebuttal.

Whispering Hills is the second development issue to be placed before city voters. Last month, council members agreed to ask voters whether the city should sell 13 acres to Home Depot for $9 million.