Updated: Council Approves Special Election for Distrito

Updated at 10:38 p.m. with more information that came out of Tuesday's City Council meeting. 

It will be up to San Juan Capistrano voters to decide during a special election whether a City Council vote in 2010 to allow for the development of a mixed-use equestrian, retail and housing project on each side of La Novia Avenue should be upheld.

If the general plan amendment allowing for those uses—known as —is dismantled by voters, the property owners' development rights will revert to development rights approved in the 1980s for 440 homes, a hotel and a "public institutional" building, such as a school or a church.

The City Council approved the special election in a 5-0 vote Tuesday night. It had the option to repeal the general plan amendment, which would have saved taxpayers about $85,000—the cost of the special election.

"We need the public to weigh in on this," Mayor Sam Allevato said.

Opponents of Distrito project circulated a this winter for the referendum. They take issue with the equestrian center and shopping center, neither of which were part of the entitlements from the 1980s. They say their property rights were violated when the general plan was amended.

“How can you trust any City Council that is not willing to protect my property rights? If we don’t stand up and fight for our right now, who will be next?” Trevor Dale, a 40-year San Juan Capistrano resident, asked.

Dale said he prefers the 440 homes and apartments/condos called for in the old project to the 90 condos, 50 rental apartments and 94 single-family homes that comprise Distrito. He said he is also very much opposed to the equestrian center. He said the addition of the horses to the La Novia ridge line will lead to a degradation of quality of life for nearby residents.

“They are entitled to 440 homes,” he said. “I knew that when I bought my property. I did not know about the horse and the mixed-uses.”

The developers, who said they’ve participated in more than 30 community meetings to gauge public opinion on Distrito, said they preferred the special-election option. Robb Cerruti, from Advanced Real Estate Services, and a spokesman for the developers, said he is eager to put to rest many misconceptions out there about the project.

The referendum will provide an avenue for him to do so, he said.

“We have a ton of community support, and they’ve asked us to stand up and fight this referendum,” Cerruti said.

Those who spoke in favor of Distrito said they had talked to signers of the petition who said they didn’t have a full understanding of what they were actually signing.  Some of them apparently thought they were signing a petition that was about development versus no development.

Either way, at some point in the future, there will be development in that area.

John Perry, who led the fight for a referendum, said he would have liked to see the council repeal its decision, rather than put the issue to voters.

He said a scaled down version of Distrito could have been worked out with the developers, who had begun negotiating with Perry and others in the final days of signature gathering. He said the developers were willing to take out a roof-top parking structure from the proposed project and reduce the number of horses permitted in the Meadows area.

“But we felt compelled to turn in the signatures,” Perry said. “It wasn’t our duty to negotiate with developers,” insinuating that he and other citizens do not have any power to actually approve development plans.

The majority of the council members say they still favor Distrito to the earlier development entitlements and said it’s a much better fit for San Juan than the hotel and public institution. Plus, they said, the property tax revenues they’d receive from a large residential development would pale in comparison to the money they’ll see from the retail and commercial outlets.

Nevertheless, they felt compelled to move forward with the special election since the petition gatherers were able to get so many signatures.

Derek Reeve was the only council member who said he would have preferred rescinding the general plan change. He made a motion to that regard, but it failed without even a second.