Who Are the Measure A Opponents?

Editor’s note: This is the last in a, an initiative that will either push the proposed Playa del Norte commercial development another step toward fruition or will kill the controversial North Beach project. 

Aside from Councilmen Tim Brown and Bob Baker, who ran on anti-Playa del Norte platforms, four central figures lead the opposition to Measure A: Charles Mann, Wayne Eggleston and Tom and Vonne Barnes.

Measure A, on the ballot March 8, would move forward the proposed 49,000-square foot retail village, named Playa del Norte.

The project would consist of 49,000 square feet of retail/restaurant buildings, centered with a 40-foot tower. The project would include an additional 11,000 square feet of outdoor “view-oriented” plazas, according to city documents.

The anti-A political action committee Vision San Clemente has so far outspent the pro-A group $24,000 to $6,000, according to campaign finance documents.

But the next round of campaign finance disclosure documents aren't due until Feb. 24—after this series is published—and .

Mann, a former candidate for City Council, speaks with a slightly Scottish accent and wears jackets and ties. In campaign finance forms, he lists his occupation as a financial planner. He is the central financier in the campaign against the 42,000-square-foot retail complex at North Beach that Measure A approval would move forward.

Mann, as of Jan. 22, has personally spent more than $21,000 over the last year to further the No on A campaign, according to campaign finance documents.

“As far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing good about this project,” Mann said in a January interview.

He said the Playa del Norte project would “historically bankrupt” the city by cluttering the environs of the important historical structures at North Beach: the Ole Hanson Beach Club, the ramshackle Miramar Theater, the Casino San Clemente and the building that now houses Icibiri Japanese restaurant.

“[Our history] is a luxury that no other cities in South Orange County can have,” he said. “This project would block off views from these buildings to the ocean and block views from the ocean to the historical properties. It’s just shameful to me, being from Europe, where they’re respectful of these historical buildings.”

Another lead opponent, former Councilman Wayne Eggleston, is always neatly dressed with close-trimmed hair and an affinity for history he has expressed in multiple public statements.

Eggleston called out project proponent and San Clemente Coastal Advisory Commission member Bill Hart to pick up the challenge of a public debate at “high noon” on Avenida Del Mar on a Friday last month.

He has since challenged pro-Playa del Norte Councilman Jim Evert to a debate hosted by the League of Women Voters, but Evert declined, saying in an e-mail to local media that he viewed a public debate as just one more propaganda tool of the No on A campaign.

Eggleston, though he initially voted in favor of the exclusive negotiating agreement with LAB, the Playa del Norte developer, in 2006, said he’s been unhappy with the maneuvering the LAB has done since the contract was signed.

Subsequently, he changed his views on the project.

"When I originally voted for it, he [LAB principal ] had planned to put in underground parking ... and a boutique hotel across the street, which I though was a good use of the land," Eggleston said. "Four weeks after we approved him as the developer of choice, he did a bait-and-switch." 

, heads his own group that advocates for a public park in place of the Playa del Norte development, the North Beach Green Alternative.

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His wife, Vonne Barnes, is also active in the Green Alternative group, presenting visuals at council meetings showing how much ocean view the Playa del Norte project would block. She has also advocated for story poles to be erected at the proposed Playa del Norte site and called for different information about the project to be posted on the city website.

Substantial ocean views from the public right-of-way would be blocked by the project in its current iteration, one reason opponents say it would likely be shot down by the California Coastal Commission, which oversees public views and beach access.

Local architect Ricardo Nicol designed a conceptual park proposal that Green Alternative has posted on its website.

Opponents argue that, though the city would retain the revenue from the $4.6-million parking lots and infrastructure it would build in conjunction with the Playa del Norte project, the money still amounts to a taxpayer subsidy.

The majority of the money to build the lots comes from a fund restricted to building parking, but big chunks of the project cost would come from the general fund and the water and sewer fund made up of water fees, property taxes and sales taxes.

The parking fund is made up of fees paid by residential developers in anticipation that new residents would need more beach parking.

Opponents argue that the money is still controlled by the taxpayers and collecting interest. Also, they say, the developer fees act as an indirect tax because builders passed them on to homebuyers in the cost of the new properties.

They also say predictions by consultants that the city would gross $1.4 million in parking revenue every year from the lots and the rest of North Beach parking—which would be farther from the beach and the train station—are faulty.

Eggleston said projected revenue was a huge overestimation; the parking consultant compared North Beach to Huntington Beach and based estimates on higher parking fees than the city actually charges, which has drastically different usage levels and patterns for parking, Eggleston said.

He consulted his own experts, who compared a potential North Beach development to current parking patterns in San Clemente's Pier Bowl, and that study projects $400,000 per year, at best.

Mann also said city officials are ignoring the increased cost of police and fire service, as well as other services to the new Playa del Norte, assuming it were built and fully occupied.

Furthermore, it could cost the city significantly more to build the lots than anticipated because of geological and infrastructure problems, Mann said.

Barnes has also pointed out the large number of commercial vacancies in town and expressed doubt that the Playa del Norte project could keep tenants.

A study by independent consultants to the city, Keyser Marston, said the project was economically tenuous and wouldn't have enough income to support purchasing the land at appraised market value, hence the generous lease-to-purchase deal under consideration.

Opponents of the project say that if voters approve Measure A in March,  they will gear up to do battle before the California Coastal Commission, the body that would have to give final approval of the project.

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