Wallflower Dana Point Is Ready to Hustle
When guests of the luxurious St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort ask about local highlights, the hotel is likely to direct them to San Clemente’s bustling downtown or hip spots in nearby Laguna Beach.
That’s a sore subject in Dana Point, the resort’s home.
“We are having sales seeped to other cities,” said Jim Miller, owner of Coffee Importers Espresso Bar near the city’s harbor. “We have a little bit of an identity issue.”
Dana Point is about to get a major makeover. Fearing that the city may be losing pace in the transformation of southern Orange County from placid suburbs to hot new destination, officials in this seaside town are gearing up for an overhaul of its commercial core and postcard marina.
The city has hired the designers of Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica to revitalize its Town Center area, which stretches along Pacific Coast Highway. Dana Point Harbor, which is owned by the county, is scheduled to undergo a $120-million remodel over the next 10 years.
The planned changes underscore a broader transformation of Orange County. As development creeps steadily south, seaside towns such as Laguna Beach, San Clemente and Dana Point are emerging as natural attractions for the legions of new residents in bedroom communities such as Mission Viejo, Ladera Ranch and Rancho Santa Margarita.
“Every [South County] coastal city is going to change in the next 20 years,” said Dana Point Councilman Wayne Rayfield. “We are trying to steer that change in the direction the city wants, not just waiting for it to happen.”
Already, both of Dana Point’s coastal neighbors have burgeoned from small towns into vibrant social and commercial centers. Upscale clothing stores and trendy restaurants have replaced mom-and-pop stores in San Clemente’s downtown, and construction has begun on a 250-acre development that will include a luxury outlet mall, a multi-screen movie theater and a dozen restaurants. It is just a few miles south of Dana Point on Interstate 5.
To the north, Laguna Beach has become more of a hipster hangout, with multimillion-dollar hillside homes and deluxe resorts.
Dana Point, a city of 6.5 square miles and roughly 38,000 residents, has its own upscale resorts but relatively little else to offer, many local business leaders and city officials say.
“Dana Point is still beautiful, but a little more quiet” than its neighbors, said Kristie Turek, public relations director at St. Regis.
“If we had an upgraded Town Center, it would be a lot easier to direct guests” there.
Today’s town center is a mile-long stretch of unspectacular buildings and aging stores. A large, postal complex plopped in the heart of the center sticks out among a number of vacant lots, and cars speed along on a pair of one-way boulevards.
“No one can deny our Town Center needs improving,” said Mayor Lara Anderson.
“The challenge for us is to keep our small-town character, yet upgrade it and make it a little stronger.”
To make it stronger, Anderson and others say, the center will need to add residential units and widen the center’s sidewalks to create pedestrian traffic. They also want to add large gardens to link the harbor, bluffs and marina to the center. The city is considering demolishing the postal building and moving its operations elsewhere.
The plans, which have been in the works for nearly a year, are scheduled to be reviewed by the Planning Commission this summer. City officials hope that if it’s approved, entrepreneurs and developers will fund projects.
The firm hired by the city to design the new Town Center, San Francisco-based Roma Design Group, said the revitalized area would resemble a mini-Third Street Promenade, the Santa Monica strip the firm designed in 1989.
“It’s a small-town atmosphere that will become a lively place,” said Boris Dramov, Roma’s president.
Marlon Boarnet, professor and chairman of UC Irvine’s department of planning, policy and design, said Dana Point’s development plans showed the continuing urbanization of Orange County and its emergence from the shadow of its larger neighbor to the north.
As cities grow and attract residents and businesses, “there’s a demand for urban, downtown experiences in Orange County,” he said.
Dana Point business leaders have pushed for the changes, but the fast pace of proposals worries some longtime residents.
James Bradley, a retired fireman who walks along the harbor each morning, said he liked the solitude and quiet.
“I like it being the sleepy coastal town, and I’m scared it may change from that,” said Bradley, 50. “Right now, it’s a diamond in the rough.”
