Politics & Government

Parks Commission: City Hall at HTC Park May Kill 'Mayberry'

A plan to revitalize downtown calls for a new City Hall at Historic Town Park in downtown.

Building a new City Hall on the the outskirts of would destroy the small town's Mayberry feel, San Juan Capistrano's Parks and Recreation Chairwoman said Monday.

Abandoning and relocating city operations to a new structure on the eastern edge of the downtown park, on a gently sloped site where a small grove of trees exists today, is part of a

The draft Historic Town Center Master Plan, produced by consultants Studio One Eleven at a cost of $500,000, is being reviewed by the City Council's numerous advisory boards. The Parks, Recreation and Senior Services Commission was the latest to review it Monday.

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Unanimously, commissioners agreed the plan—which calls for a more walkable downtown with apartments mixed in with additional retail and commercial businesses—is a good one.

"I absolutely love this plan," Commissioner Jenny Friess said. "I could talk forever about all of the things I love about it."

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They dispute, however, the proposal to build City Hall at the park where major community events, such as the , are held.

It would "null and void the significance of that park ... [we're] going to lose the small town, Mayberry feel of HTC park," said Chairwoman Kathy Hooper, who said traffic to and from City Hall would lead to congestion.

The park was at one time home to a handful of adobes constructed by the Native Americans who erected the neighboring Mission San Juan Capistrano.

After a study in the late 1980s found , city officials deemed it a "culturally-rich resource area" and a "space that needs to be preserved," said the city's principal planner Bill Ramsey.

Ramsey is proposing that the City Council stray from the draft Master Plan by asking that a new City Hall consist of two structures built on each side of Yorba Street.

Parking for City Hall would be situated in a proposed parking structure on the former Texaco Lot where the exists now.


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