Business & Tech

Winery to Offer Weddings and Music into the Night

Although city staff wanted to pull the plug at 9 p.m., the San Juan Capistrano business owner argued that wouldn't be fair.

Originally posted at 8:14 a.m. Oct. 23, 2013. Edited to correct motion passed.

San Juan Capistrano – which Patch dubbed the “City of Love” nearly two years ago for its wedding venues per capita – is about to get another entrant.

Kyle Franson, the owner of the Rancho Capistrano Winery, being built across from the Regency theaters on Verdugo Street, also wants to make his business available for small weddings. The venue will hold about 80 people. He went before the Planning Commission Tuesday night to nail down some of the operational details.

Staff had recommended that outdoor amplified music should stop at 9 p.m. daily so as not to disturb residents in the Los Rios Street Historic District. But Franson said that would put him at a distinct disadvantage.

Franciscan Gardens and El Adobe can have bands until midnight. The Villa can have bands late into the night,” Franson said. “We’d like to be treated the same as everybody up and down the street.”

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Commissioners agreed.

“If you’re sitting with an expensive glass of wine, I don’t think you’ll be listening to heavy metal music,” said commission Chairman Sheldon Cohen.

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And Commissioner Ian Gardener noted there is some distance and a train depot between the homes and the new winery.

The vote to approve the business permit with outdoor amplified music until midnight was unanimous, with Commissioner Evan Chaffee absent.


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