The San Juan Capistrano City Council will consider whether to approve a project study to examine the feasibility of a new performing arts center at Historic Town Center Park, as well as rezoning measures that would allow a 95-unit apartment complex at the former Kimpton Hotel Site on El Camino Real.
The potential study is on the agenda for a meeting being held Tuesday, June 6. City staff is recommending the council approve both.
Local developer Dan Almquist has long promised a downtown performing arts center in San Juan. That proposed center would be on the eastern portion of HTC Park, which the city owns, according to the agenda report.
“The conceptual development plans identify that the performing arts center would provide 49,076 (square feet) of floor area,” the city said in the report. “Any potential lease or sale of city-owned parkland for use as a performing arts center would require future City Council approval.”
As for the housing component, the apartments would be within three- and four-story buildings. The apartment complex would also have a “resort-style pool” and a 3,500-square-foot clubhouse building.
The project would require an amendment to what’s called the El Camino Specific Plan, which is a series of land use regulations created for prior phases of related development in the area. Amendments to the general plan and municipal code—along with rezoning—are, in turn, required for the Specific Plan amendment.
Tuesday’s agenda item is just to approve the project study.
“Should the City Council elect to move forward with initiation of the proposed General Plan Amendment, Rezone, and Code Amendment study, a draft Specific Plan would be prepared based upon the uses and project designs proposed by the Applicant,” the city said in the report.
“The study would include the preparation of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to evaluate the environmental impacts of the proposal,” the city added.
The plan and code amendments and rezoning measures would then be presented to the Planning Commission for review once an EIR is completed.
“The Planning Commission’s recommendations would then be presented to the City Council for final consideration at a separate duly noticed public hearing,” according to the agenda report. “Staff estimates that the public hearings before the Planning Commission and City Council would occur sometime in late 2024.”
Almquist purchased the Camino Real Playhouse property and plans to turn that into parking spaces, which would require the demolition of the current Playhouse building. Playhouse administrators are searching for another location in San Juan to relocate to and funding to do so.
Also on the agenda for Tuesday’s agenda is the potential approval of a “passive” park to be created at the corner of La Novia Avenue and San Juan Creek Road by the San Juan Hills Golf Club. The park would include a small citrus grove, boardwalk, and trees on the property, which is owned by the city.
The San Juan Hills Golf Club wants to expand its golf course on the other side of the intersection, which runs up against the Golf Club’s current boundaries. The course expansion would be separately reviewed by the City Council in the future.
Under a proposed 30-year lease agreement, the San Juan Hills Golf Club would pay the city $50,000 a year for the property.
The City Council meeting will be held in the Nydegger Building at 31421 La Matanza Street and is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. Residents can either attend in person or watch a live-streamed video of the meeting at sanjuancapistrano.org.
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