San Clemente Still Not Ready to Vote on Nixon Library

Despite threats by sponsors to move the planned Richard Nixon Presidential Library elsewhere, San Clemente officials said Wednesday night they may still need two or three meetings before they can vote on approving the 253-acre coastal development that would include the Nixon project.

A representative from the developer, the Lusk Co. of Irvine, told the City Council that Lusk and the city will try to compromise on conditions the city staff is recommending for the project.

The city is considering waiving part of its open-space requirement for the project, known as the Marblehead Coastal Plan, if Lusk will agree to add four acres to a proposed six-acre public facilities site--which would become a new civic center--as well as paying for improvement costs to build a 12-acre, bluff-top park.

Don Stefenson, Lusk’s executive vice president, denied that his company’s project is shortchanging the city on open space. He said the firm does not want to give the additional acreage for the civic center, nor make improvements to the park.

“Lusk will not knowingly allow you to approve a plan that we can’t do,” Stefenson told the council, referring to the company’s belief that such improvements are not its responsibility.

City officials, who agreed by consensus Wednesday night to hold more meetings on the project issue, also called for a geotechnical analysis before Lusk would be allowed to grade the site.

Recommended Against Acquisition

Geofirm Inc. of South Laguna completed a preliminary geotechnical review and recommended that San Clemente consider not acquiring as city property a proposed park “in view of its potentially significant geotechnical hazards, liabilities and maintenance costs.”

City Planning Director James Barnes said that the city staff considers the Geofirm study inconclusive and that further analysis will be needed for Phase 2 of the project, which includes such planning details as building heights and drainage.

Grading the bluffs and filling the property’s three canyons could cost the Lusk Co. $4 million to $5 million, City Manager James Hendrickson said.

As proposed, the Marblehead Coastal Plan includes three hotels, 1,290 homes and a commercial complex atop 100-foot bluffs along oceanfront property near Avenida Pico.

In March, 1984, the council approved plans for the library on a 16.7-acre portion of the Marblehead site, but officials of the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Archives Foundation decided to wait until the entire development project is approved before seeking California Coastal Commission approval for the library.

“The city feels its responsibility to husband that property,” Hendrickson said Tuesday. City officials have said they will not be rushed into deciding.

Library officials are said to be considering other sites. They chose San Clemente because it overlooks the promontory of the former President’s Western White House.