As city leaders mull restraints of growth cap, town
preservationists feel increasing pressure to save San Juan’s
history
Look out, San Juan Bautista. The barbarians are at the gate.
Many residents in the tiny historic town believe their hamlet is
insulated from increasing development pressure and the demands of
state housing authorities. After all, in 2002 city leaders easily
passed a 1 percent growth cap brought forth by a citizens’
initiative that allows for only four new homes to be built a year
within city limits.
As city leaders mull restraints of growth cap, town preservationists feel increasing pressure to save San Juan’s history
Look out, San Juan Bautista. The barbarians are at the gate.
Many residents in the tiny historic town believe their hamlet is insulated from increasing development pressure and the demands of state housing authorities. After all, in 2002 city leaders easily passed a 1 percent growth cap brought forth by a citizens’ initiative that allows for only four new homes to be built a year within city limits.
Moreover, the town’s historic status as one of the first California outposts for settlers from both Mexico and the East has given it an unofficial hands-off designation among many developers.
But others who would like to turn San Juan into the next bedroom community south of Silicon Valley might get their chance. Town officials now are saying that potential lawsuits could be brewing that challenge that comforting growth cap – voter mandate be damned. Since it’s “potential litigation,” city officials aren’t saying who or what organization, if any, is complaining about the city’s stringent housing cap.
The city council plans to hold a closed session about the growth cap in June.
“We can wait until we’re actually sued or be proactive,” said City Manager Jan McClintock.
For town activists who have dedicated their lives to preserving San Juan, the news is devastating.
“The intent of that initiative was to save San Juan as an historic town,” said Rebecca McGovern, a fixture at lengthy council meetings who also was the leading organizer of the growth cap measure passed in 2002. “If we change that, we are opening the door to every developer you can think of. So now they are pounding at the door, threatening lawsuits.”
But the pressure is not all coming from developers. Now the state’s housing authority, the Department of Housing and Community Development, is barking about how San Juan isn’t building its fair share of housing for the state, which could lead to a withholding of state funding of Community Development Block Grants – money given back to local jurisdictions for infrastructure projects like roads, sewer and traffic improvements.
City Planning Director Elizabeth Caraker said the state has notified her that San Juan’s 1 percent cap doesn’t meet the “fair share” standard, but believes the town can appease the agency by adding more exemptions.
“Other cities have had to change,” Caraker said. “They’re asking us to relax it for special needs, such as housing for the disabled, seniors and farm workers. And by using more infill.”
The state housing authority posts a website that reproduces the exact letters that the department has sent out to cities throughout the state, and whether the city is “in” or “out” of compliance. The most recent notification, according to the website, was sent Oct. 18, 2005, and can be reviewed at: http://www.hcd.ca.gov/hpd/hrc/plan/he/he_review_letters/heweb_alpha.pdf. The site shows San Juan as being “OUT” of compliance.
There are only about eight to 10 infill lots in town, but McClintock said lots could be split to accommodate the housing mandate.
Council members Art Medina and George Dias aren’t pleased with the state’s mandate, and don’t see the need to fulfill it since San Juan has rarely benefited from such funds in the past. McClintock says the town hasn’t collected on community block grants since 2002 because of the growth cap.
“Now they want to do away with our growth control ordinance,” fumed Dias, who is the most vocal on the council in opposing Caltrans’ plan to widen Highway 156 into a superhighway. “It never ends.”
Despite the town leaders’ resentment of being told by the state how to grow their town, there exists another underlying tension, one between town preservationsists – specifically, the Historic Resources Board – and the council. Council members believe the board has too much power and want to rein the group in.
But HRB members, including McGovern, have said if the town’s leadership doesn’t wake up and do more to preserve the historic structures and icons of the city, they will lose a major economic underpinning of the town: the allure to draw tourists.
“There are certain parts of state law that protect historic towns,” McGovern said. “We don’t have to do everything in the housing element.”
The city Historic Resources Board has always had something of a love/hate relationship over a share of power with the council. The council now appoints members, and this week they appointed resident Wanda Guibert, an English teacher at Hartnell College.
But there always seems to be an issue between the two entities. The latest is over sidewalk repairs. City leaders say they can’t afford another slip-and-fall lawsuit from an injured pedestrian, while the HRB recommended that before the concrete is poured, a study should be done on how to work around historic horse-rings and other olden sections of the walkways. The council flatly rejected the idea.
It took five years for the group of town historians, which include Cara Vonk and Ted Thoeny, to get the city to put a preservation ordinance in place, in 2004. The ordinance, say members, professionalizes the planning process for the city and allows the HRB to work with the council and planning commission when important issues come up over historic resources, especially old buildings.
The ordinance was enacted for a little over a year when the council decided to make some key changes, particularly on the subject of demolitions. The HRB was not happy about the changes, which stripped their group of the power to override the planning commission.
As the quiet feud between elected leaders and the HRB goes on, the HRB continues with their work on an inventory of the entire town. Last fall the group was awarded a $25,000 grant from the California Office of Historic Preservation to hire consultants, the prestigious Palos Verdes-based Galvin and Associates Historic Preservation Planning Company, to help them with the inventory. The grant is matched with countless volunteer hours – at minimum wage – from the HRB members.
The inventory, expected to be completed in September, will show which buildings are exempt from the historic preservation planning process and which must be reviewed and saved for posterity.
McGovern says the worst thing the town could do is to give in to development demands.
“San Juan is known throughout the state and the country as an historic town,” she said. “For the last 30 years I’ve been fighting to keep it that way. I certainly hope there’s enough concern in the council to do the same.”
