San Clemente’s Marblehead Project Draws Opposition

The San Clemente City Council on Wednesday continued its discussion on a proposed 253-acre development--part of which is scheduled to contain the Richard Nixon Presidential Library--before an audience of die-hard library supporters and a new contingent of opponents.

A group called the San Clemente Citizens for Sensible Growth and Traffic Control had sent out 3,000 flyers urging residents to “protect your quality of life” by voicing environmental concerns about the development, known as the Marblehead Coastal Plan.

In its flyer, the group listed several problems that might occur if the Marblehead plan is approved: traffic congestion on Camino San Clemente, El Camino Real and Avenido Pico; view obstruction and light pollution; noise and poor air quality resulting from proposed hotels, and destruction of coastal bluffs from mass grading.

“We’re appealing to environmentally concerned Republicans,” said Glenn Edward Roy, a San Clemente resident and a member of the group. He said the group is an ad hoc committee of the Orange County Citizens for Sensible Growth and Traffic Control.

The groups share the goals, he said, of tying future development to existing traffic routes and blocking new routes until necessary.

Because the flyers were just sent out, Roy said, he won’t be able to judge citizens’ reactions until Wednesday’s council meeting .

“Most people are unaware of the intensity of this (Marblehead) project,” Roy said. He said he hoped the flyers would draw more people to the meetings.

Roy and four other San Clemente residents spent $500 to produce the flyer. Their concern is to preserve the natural habitat in the canyon and wetlands on the Marblehead site.

“But people hear the word environmentalist , and it’s like the word Democratic in Orange County--people automatically tune you out,” he said.

Many of the group’s concerns were discussed during Wednesday night’s meeting, when city staff members reviewed with the council the project’s environmental impact report, the fiscal impact report, traffic circulation, residential and commercial land uses and grading.

The Marblehead plan, proposed by the Lusk Co. of Irvine, would include three hotels, 1,290 homes and a commercial complex atop 100-foot bluffs along oceanfront property near Avenido Pico.

The Planning Commission unanimously adopted Phase 1 of the project July 16 but imposed several conditions.

The City Council is considering the same package, which includes waiving part of the city’s open-space requirement if Lusk will agree to add four acres to a proposed six-acre public facilities site--which would become a new civic center--and pay for improvement costs to build a 12-acre park on top of the bluffs.

However, Lusk executive vice president Don Stefenson has denied that the company’s project is shortchanging the city on open space, contending that it is the city’s responsibility to make such improvements.

While San Clemente officials deliberate over the Marblehead project, Nixon Presidential Archives Foundation members have been looking at potential alternate library sites in Yorba Linda, the former President’s birthplace.

Nixon Library discussion is scheduled to continue next Wednesday, when the City Council may make a decision on Phase 1 of the Marblehead plan.