SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Housing, Golf Course OKd on Split Vote

The second-largest housing project in the history of this rustic mission town--a 455-unit development and golf course to be built on landfill--has won backing from the City Council by a narrow margin.

With state limitations on how landfill property can be used, the council decided in a 3-2 vote Tuesday that the project was the best development for the former 148-acre Forster Canyon Landfill.

“There aren’t that many uses you can have for a dump site,” Councilman Kenneth E. Friess said in an interview. “But there are a large number of these kind of projects that have turned out really well.”

Known as San Juan Meadows, the subdivision is the second half of an overall project that will eventually encompass 400 acres and about 780 units--the second largest housing tract ever approved in San Juan Capistrano, city officials said. The first part of the tract, called Pacific Point, was approved by the city last year.

San Juan Meadows, which could include up to 180 units of senior citizen housing on about 30 acres as well as a nine-hole public golf course, is owned by Santa Ana-based developer San Juan Creek Associates.

Prices for the homes will run between $250,000 and $400,000, with the senior units averaging about $80,000 per unit, city officials said.

The project was strongly opposed by Councilmen Jerry Harris and Jeff Vasquez, who contend that there will be too many units for the size of the property.

Vasquez said the city is allowing the developer to contribute $1 million to a municipal parks fund in exchange for concessions such as building homes on lot sizes as small as 5,000 square feet.

“This is the most aesthetically degrading project I’ve ever seen come to the city,” he said. “We have compromised our developing standards by allowing the developer to cut corners.”

But Friess, who was elected to the council in 1976 with anti-development views, said he now feels that some new housing is necessary.

“When I came on the council, I tried to stop all growth in the community,” Friess said. “But there are some serious impacts that go along with that. I have children, and as they grow up, there is no place for them to afford to live in San Juan.

“One has to be realistic about the process. This will be a very expensive project to build, and if we try to keep it a low-density, country-type (subdivision), it would never be built.”

The city’s largest housing development is the 900-unit GlenFed project, which was approved by the council in the mid-1970s. Located near Forster Canyon along San Juan Creek, about two-thirds of the homes have been completed.