Community Corner

Ocean Views, Public Safety at Risk with Large Hillside Home, Neighbors Say

The Planning Commission delays vote on a request to rezone property outside Pacifica San Juan for the construction of a 4,900-square-foot house.

To the satisfaction of his potential future neighbors in Pacifica San Juan, Arsalan Darmal is not any closer to building his family's dream home just outside their gated communities.

He is proposing to build a 4,906-square-foot two-story home on a remnant, oddly shaped parcel on Avenida California. The street is a windy, unpopulated road popular with residents as a walking route because of its "magnificent" ocean views and vistas of open space. 

The Planning Commission Tuesday night postponed its vote on whether to recommend a rezone of the .60-acre parcel to the City Council, which would allow for the construction of the house. Commissioners said they needed to first find out if it's even legal to build on the property.

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"I’d have a very difficult time supporting this project, but I want to give the applicant a better opportunity," said Commissioner Robert Williams. "A continuance is the minimum action we should take [tonight]."

Among the commission's long list of concerns—shared by residents in the Blue Harbor community—are the fact that the city told few residents about Tuesday's public hearing; vague building plans; the modern-style design of the house itself; and the soil foundation, which is notoriously unstable in San Juan Capistrano. There's also the fact that the property owners want to be subject to the development standards of the planned community but would not be paying Mello-Roos taxes or be subject to homeowner association fees or rules.

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About 15 residents spoke passionately in opposition to the development.

They said it would impede their views of Dana Point Harbor, San Clemente and Catalina Island. They said it would break continuity of trails throughout the open space within the community and create public-safety issues with cars pulling in and out of a driveway. They said that although the parcel has been privately owned and zoned for "planned community" since the 1950s, they were under the impression that it was open space and would never be developed.

The Darmals' application to the city would change the zoning to "hillside estate" and would incorporate the property in the city's Forster Canyon development plan.

"Our home values will be impacted by this residence; I’m extremely disturbed by that," said John Riddle. "If you have not driven on Avenida California, I encourage you give it a try … it is a beautiful view that is going to be destroyed by this [house]."

In a letter dated Feb. 14 to the Planning Commission, Paul Jenkinson wrote that had he and his wife been aware of the proposed Darmal residence when they purchased their home, they would have "actively considered alternatives."

Before buying into Pacifica San Juan, he said, he and his wife did their due diligence looking into development proposals surrounding the community.

"We believed we were informed buyers. ... However, we were not aware of the Darmal residence development plans until yesterday," he wrote.

It's a concern shared by Richard and Deborah Adinolfi, who said, "When entering into the purchase of our home, we were assured that the only building that would be allowed by the city or our homeowners association would be the identical structures that already existed."

"An aerial view of the complete build-out of this subdivision was prominently displayed on the wall in the model home sales office. This zoning modification request now raises concerns as to why we may have been misled," they said.

The Darmals will have 30 days to provide city staffers with documents proving they can legally build on the land. The item is slated to come before the Planning Commission again on Tuesday, March 22.


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