San Clemente Voters Say 'Yes' to Off-Beat Retail Center

San Clemente, Calif., voters made a special trip to the polls on Nov. 4 to give Shaheen Sadeghi a green light to build the unconventional Playa del Norte center.

The voters of this growing South Orange County city approved Measure W, an advisory measure that is not binding. Yet it will give their City Council a green light to continue negotiating with Sadeghi, who is best known for his offbeat The Camp and The Lab shopping centers in Costa Mesa, Calif. According to the Orange County Registrar of Voters, 53.4 percent of voters approved Measure W and 46.6 percent voted against it. The beachside Playa del Norte project would create 56,280 square feet of restaurants and community space in San Clemente’s North Beach section.

Instead of widely known retail brand names, the development would focus on tenants such as cafeacute;s; cheese shops; wine boutiques; and a community space with a small stage, gardens and benches.

San Clemente’s City Council selected Sadeghi’s LAB Holdings LLC in 2006 to develop a section of North Beach that had become blighted. This place was once a leading section of town, hosting the Miramar Theater and the San Clemente Casino. It is also home to the Ole Hanson Beach Club and a parking lot for a Metrolink station.

But Sadeghi’s development was criticized by opponents of Measure W. They alleged it only drew support by the town’s City Council, not the town’s residents. When the measure got on the ballot, it was a hotly contested issue in San Clemente, frequently filling up the pages of the opinion section and letters to the editor of local newspapers San Clemente Times and San Clemente Sun Post News.

With the passage of Measure W, no more serious opposition to Playa del Norte is expected, said Kathryn Stovall Dennis, a San Clemente city activist and former architectural-review board member. She volunteered and received no monetary compensation to build a pro-retail center group called Pro North Beach Vision Coalition. Its members frequently walked precincts and sent e-mail blasts supporting Measure W. However, the project still has a long road ahead of it. It must go through an environmental-impact review and a hearing from the California Coastal Commission. If it passes those hearings, construction is scheduled to begin on Playa del Norte in 2012. —Andrew Asch