San Juan Capistrano city councilors recently approved what’s known as the El Camino Specific Plan—which will rezone the land on which a community playhouse sits to pave the way for a four-story parking garage and two two-story buildings for retail and office spaces.
As a result, the Camino Real Playhouse, which has staged community theater at the location for 34 years, will be demolished.
The vote at the Oct. 4 council meeting was the culmination of numerous discussions among residents, councilors, and Dan Almquist, a resident and owner of Frontier Real Estate Investments that is overseeing the property’s reconstruction.
The property in question is located near Mission San Juan Capistrano in the city’s downtown—on El Camino Real—an area bustling with cars and foot traffic, but with limited parking.
“I am not in love with all aspects of this proposal. However, it does offer a bonus of 128 excess parking spaces in a parking-starved downtown area,” Mayor Pro Tem Howard Hart wrote in a Facebook post.
Hart told The Epoch Times he voted yes on the plan because he considered it the “least of all evils.” The city, he said, is mandated by state law to sell the property under an agreement from 10 years ago.
If the council didn’t agree to the project, a short window of opportunity would have opened to make the property available for low-income housing, as mandated by California’s Surplus Land Act.
Hart said that would be “a horrible thing” because the property is in an area that has little parking, and such developers can build denser units and are not required to supply additional parking.
Mayor Derek Reeve, Hart and Councilman Sergio Farias voted yes on the issue, with Councilman Troy Bourne absent. Councilman John Taylor abstained, he said, because he lives near the property and has a conflict of interest.
Residents have raised concerns about construction worsening traffic congestion, overdevelopment, and the loss of the playhouse.
“Little by little our city landmarks are being taken down and replaced by modern conveniences,” Rich Paddock, resident of San Juan Capistrano for the past 40 years, wrote to the city council.
Almquist, whose company specializes in such development, did not respond to The Epoch Times for comment. But he has previously made promises to relocate the playhouse by building a new center for the arts in the city’s downtown.
Hart also said is raising funds for this relocation project through a nonprofit but has not officially introduced it to the city council for approval.
