Two Thumbs Down on Mission Grill Plan

If they had been Yelp reviewers, the Planning Commission members would have given the proposed Mission Grill restaurant zero out of five stars.

The panel met Tuesday to review plans to convert into . 

“To me, this looks like too much a boilerplate design for a franchise [chain] restaurant,” said Commissioner Ginny Kerr.

But instead of rejecting the plan outright, the commission postponed the matter for two months to give the owner and his architect time to revise the plans and go back to the Design Review Committee for input.

As proposed, the restaurant would feature a nearly 21-foot tower at the entrance, and cluster three windows in three arches, with orangish tile above and below the windows and turquoise wood trim, according to the simulations the Planning Commission reviewed.

The design was universally panned.

“I’m not sure this project is salvageable,” said Commissioner Tim Neely.  “The flatness of the elevation along the street [Camino Capistrano], the tile inserts are just tawdry. The colors are wrong.”

He added that he found it surprising the Design Review Committee would recommend the project for approval.

But commissioners Robert Williams and Jeff Parkhurst, who are also members of the Design Review Committee, said the project looked significantly different than what they reviewed.

“This is not what we approved at the DRC. I’m struggling to find anything that we asked for or suggested,” Parkhurst said.

Resident Carolyn Nash asked the architect to lower the height of the tower because she said it would be unattractive to people exiting Mission San Juan Capistrano, blocking views of nearby hills.

“The tower serves no functional use,” she said. “The preservation of the views of the western ridgeline is much more important.”

The project is due to return to the Planning Commission at its March 13 meeting.