The San Juan Capistrano City Council on Tuesday also took the City Attorney's advice and rescinded the effort to ban overnight parking on parts of Camino Capistrano and Alipaz. The council in March put the prohibition in place to improve safety, aesthetics and to battle preceived overcrowding in nearby neighborhoods.
The council -- except Tom Hribar, who opposed it in the first place -- continued to express support for the move, but have backed down after attorney Ed Connor raised the issue of whether proper environmental-protection laws were followed. The city is studying the issue.
Here's Connor's earlier letter.
Several residents spoke, most also in favor of the ban. Many said, however, they understood the city needed to ensure the action is done properly.
But it was also announced Tuesday that the Capistrano Villas neighbhorhood, adjacent to the targeted area, is stepping up its own efforts and ensuring parking regulations in the community are followed and residents keep their garages cleared for cars.
All three associations in the Villas are holding a Spring Cleaning on June 8 -- during which the associations will pay to haul stuff away. Then on June 13, the associations will take a peek in garages.
Stay tuned.
The council also voted to pay up to $30,000 to end it's agreement with Capistrano Animal Rescue Effort, which has had control of a piece of city property on Camino Capistrano north of JSerra for a few years, working to build an adoption center there.
The city is now eyeing the parcel for a dog park, and its agreement with CARE calls for reimbursement of any actual expenses CARE spent on the land. CARE, for its part, is willing to waive the year-long notice requirement and turn over the land as soon as they get a check.
Councilman Lon Uso abstained from the issue because he owns an interest in a building a
Here's CARE's release:
The City Council on Tuesday voted to terminate the lease with Capistrano Animal Rescue Effort (CARE) for a three-quarter acre site north of the intersection of Camino Capistrano and Junipero Serra, where the organization had planned to build an Animal Adoption & Rescue Center.
In consideration for canceling the agreement, the City will reimburse CARE for between $25,000 and $35,000 in costs for work undertaken to improve the site and prepare it for construction.
In 2001, the City Council leased to CARE for $1 per year a small portion of excess property that was acquired as part of the Open Space land purchase in the early 1990s. CARE began site preparation and fundraising to build a facility on the site to further its mission to rescue and adopt homeless San Juan Capistrano animals and has since raised approximately half of the projected $1 million cost. CARE, at its expense, processed the required land development permits, had more than $130,000 in site grading and geotechnical analysis and work donated, and fenced and “hydro-seeded” the property to prevent erosion.
In February, the City proposed a Creekside Buffer Ordinance that would have rendered the site unusable for the current plan. The ordinance is still pending, although the Council advised CARE it should consider other options.
Commenting on the Council’s vote, CARE President Matt Gaffney said:
According to our lease, the City has the right to rescind the lease agreement with 12 months’ notice. While we are disappointed that we will not be able to fulfill our dream to build a local facility for the animals, the city is within its rights to terminate.
“We appreciate the work that has been done to move the project forward, but it looks like we will have to explore other options. Of course our goal remains to serve the animal community in San Juan Capistrano.”
Rather than the animal rescue/adoption center, Mayor Mark Nielsen has suggested putting a dog park on the site.
CARE was formed in 2000 and has since rescued and adopted more than 1,150 abandoned cats and dogs from San Juan Capistrano that are picked up by Orange County Animal Services. For more information, visit www.capoanimalrescue.com, or phone (949) 240-1735.
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