SAN CLEMENTE : Shopping Center Given 1st Approval

Developers of a 77,000-square-foot shopping center near San Clemente High School won preliminary City Council approval this week.

Representatives of the Tsuma Family Trust, which owns the 6-acre Gateway Plaza site at the corner of Avenida Pico and Avenida Presidio, are expected to receive final approval at a City Council meeting later this month.

The council also decided to continue discussing a recent proposal to buy the nearby 43-acre San Clemente High School site from the Capistrano Unified School District. City officials hope that the property, which is near Interstate 5, can be developed into a shopping mall or an auto dealer center.

A city-hired consultant, the Natelson Co., has recommended that the Gateway Plaza plans be postponed so officials can work on combining the high school site with the Tsuma family property. The school site is considered potentially lucrative because it is the only large section of relatively undeveloped land remaining along Interstate 5 through San Clemente, City Manager Michael W. Parness said.

City finance officials have predicted that San Clemente faces a $1-million deficit in 1992 if action is not taken soon to increase commercial sales tax revenue. The city has since taken steps to reduce its deficit to about $200,000 but faces a bare-bones budget that will limit its ability to provide extra public services, Parness said.

Also, the Natelson study and a recent study by another outside firm pointed out that the consumer demands of San Clemente residents are not being met by the city’s commercial businesses. As a result, local residents shop in other cities, with San Clemente losing sales tax revenues.

Gateway Plaza architect Gary Wiggle, also a San Clemente resident, urged the council not to wait pending a possible consolidation of the properties but instead to take the immediate benefit of sales taxes from a project ready to be built.

School district officials have not indicated whether they would support the city’s proposal to swap the school site for a new site but have had discussions with city officials, Parness said.