Measure B Opponents Start Canvassing

One month after land developers in support of Measure B, and less than one month before the , opposition leaders are quietly setting into motion their own grassroots canvass.

Resident John Perry, the spokesman for the No on B campaign, was juggling recycled campaign signs, and fliers and blueprints of Distrito La Novia-San Juan Meadows on Friday morning on the patio of the San Juan Hills Golf Course—not far from where the commercial/residential/equestrian development he opposes is planned to be built. He was on his way to post outside of grocery stores to remind residents to vote in the upcoming election and to retain his base—t

If Perry is successful—he's up against a numerous local politicians, and land developers—Measure B will fail June 7, dismantling a recent City Council decision to change the type of development permitted along La Novia Avenue at Valle Road on the south side of town.

"This is a low-cost operation," he said of his campaign. "And there's surprisingly few people involved."

Indeed, on Monday it was just he and resident Trevor Dale who were hammering into grass on public rights of way red and white No on Measure B signs, some of which have been converted from No on Measure A signs, a somewhat similar The difference is that in San Juan Capistrano, Measure B isn't a choice between development or no development.

This is an election about what type of development residents prefer.

If the measure passes and Perry is unsuccessful, he will be able to see from own patio on the edge of the golfing green, a 1-acre, rooftop park atop an underground parking structure. Although he'd much prefer to look at an empty hillside, he said this fight isn't about being a NIMBY (Not in My Backyard). Rather, he said it's about preserving the character of San Juan Capistrano, and the last bastion of rural living in the area.

"It's really very, overly dense," he said, calling the newly approved plans a dramatic departure from the low-level, sprawling shopping centers and neighborhood tracts typically seen in town. He said the old plan is less likely to be built, will bring less traffic and won't entail as many structures or parking lots.

The argument that one plan is better for the town than the other is the same argument the Yes on B proponents are using. They say, however, that the newer plans for Distrito La Novia-San Juan Meadows, conceived by the developers, Lake Forest-based Advanced Real Estate Services, with the help of former City Councilmen Lon Uso and Mark Nielsen, are a substantial improvement.

The 18.7-acre Distrito portion of the project site was originally owned by the and provided access to the Old Forster Canyon Landfill to the south via an access road from San Juan Creek Road along the east edge of the Distrito site.

The construction of La Novia Avenue in the 1980s separated the Distrito property from the San Juan Meadows portion of the property to the south. In 1982, the City Council approved the El Parador Hotel, a 300-room hotel and conference facility on Distrito.

Despite the entitlements—the rights to build the hotel and hundreds of homes—the 153.8 acre-Distrito La Novia-San Juan Meadows property was never developed (about 35 of those acres are the landfill, which operated from 1958 to 1976, when an estimated 2.5-3 million cubic yards of waste was deposited).

In November 2010, the City Council voted to get rid of the plans for the hotel on Distrito and instead add 90 condominiums, 50 retail outlets with second- and third-story apartment units overhead, 2.5-acres of specialty market and restaurants and 1.9-acres for offices. It also reduced the number of houses from 400 that were supposed to be built on the San Juan Meadows site before it was purchased by Advanced Real Estate Services.

Under the new plan, 94 houses would be built on 27.7 acres on the meadows. Forty-one acres are dedicated for an equestrian facility, two acres for a clubhouse, nearly 28 acres of natural open space, 14 acres for private streets and a detention basin, four acres for horse trail parking and RV storage and 18 acres of landscaping.

Dale, who served with Uso and Nielsen on an advisory committee to conjure up the new plans, said it was never his intention to design a project with three-story-high condominium complexes. The density of the project and the likelihood of it creating traffic congestion also ignited concerns on the Planning Commission, which voted 4-2 to deny the new plans before the City Council adopted them.

The Measure B proponents say " ‘Yes is less,’ ” Dale said. “I say: ‘Yes is a mess.’ ”