Opinion: SC Council focused on the right ball. Project density.

Not too long ago, the San Clemente City Council voted to turn down a development proposal along a southern section of PCH.

The builder was a local gentleman who was seeking permits for a building comprised of 7 residential units in the building’s upper floors and street-facing commercial space for the main floor.

The corner land this was going to be on used to be a gas station but had been vacant for quite a while.
Almost everyone agreed it was a nice looking piece of design by the architect involved, but there was only one problem.

The building was simply too big, too dense for the area it was to become a part of. More importantly, it would surely be the prototype for other similarly dense projects that would likely sweep up and down nearby parts of PCH, given time and the god of real estate transactions destiny – high property values.

It’s hard to disagree with the benefits of high property values and all the convenient luxuries produced to feed our ever-higher lifestyle expectations.

But the real cost, the real price that is exacted over time is a crowding-out of simple businesses, simple places - in favor of higher density and established corporate interests that feed off these dynamics.

These forces don’t just stop in and of themselves one day, leading to a constant pressure on open space, a constant pressure on small independent business. A constant pressure for more people to serve the perpetual motion machine of growth for growth’s sake.

Luckily for San Clemente at this point in time, the project was turned down and the builder was asked to create something more “sustainable”, of a smaller footprint, as one way to describe the outcome.

The SC Council did a great job of keeping their eyes on the ball.

A textbook example of this is a place called Banning Ranch in Newport Beach: