Forging a city from fractious neighborhoods is exciting and messy. Ask Dana Point.
Long a sleepy beach town, Dana Point was too far south of Hollywood to be a glitterati getaway and too far north of San Diego to draw from that direction.
Even namesake sailor Richard Henry Dana stopped only briefly on a two-year trip. He called it beautiful, but didn’t stay.
Locals liked their visitors that way. Some still do.
But that’s all changing with growth in the city,a loose collection of enclaves that don’t always have the same view, ocean or otherwise.
The city of 37,000 is home to upscale hotels St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort & Spa, the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel (which, despite its name, is in Dana Point) and the Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa, which sold in October for $200 million.
The city’s hotel bed tax, technically a “transient occupancy tax,” makes up 45% of the city’s $30 million yearly budget.
Two major projects are on deck: a planned $155 million harbor renovation and a downtown redevelopment pegged at $20 million.
“The stars have come into alignment for Dana Point,” City Manager Doug Chotkevys said.
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Boaters association’s Heyman at Dana Point Harbor: “Boaters would be happy to keep what they have” |
People are noticing the city’s upscale hotels, multimillion-dollar homes, oceanfront lots and a quaint and pleasant harbor that’s uncluttered, at least for now, by too many yachts, chain stores or tourists.
An influx of wealthy residents has come in recent years, drawn by the city’s coastal beauty and slower pace of life.
Among them is Larry Dodge, chief executive of Foothill Ranch-based financial services company American Sterling Corp., who splits his time between Kansas City and Monarch Beach.
And more are coming. Sales of lots for homes at The Strand at Headlands, a 121-acre project on a seaside bluff, have set county records at $30 million to $40 million an acre. Construction on homes could start next year.
People who visit no longer talk of “having to go all the way to Dana Point,” Chotkevys said. Since incorporation in 1989, the San Diego (I-5) Freeway has been widened and the San Joaquin Hills (73) Toll Road opened.
Redevelopment
To cater to all these new visitors and residents, city officials want the harbor and downtown projects to fix what they see as a lack of stores.
“We want no more ‘retail leakage,'” Chotkevys said, referring to the need for residents to shop elsewhere because that’s where the stores are. “We want to make sure people can get the goods and services they want. We want them to ask, ‘Why would we ever want to leave Dana Point?'”
The challenge for the city: building up Dana Point for locals and visitors without irking longtime residents, some of whom already grumble about redevelopment plans.
Some longtime residents joined to form Dana Point nearly 20 years ago. They still refer to people who have lived here for a decade as those “who haven’t been here long.”
There’s friction, as in any town.
“We’re one big happy family,some of the time,” said former mayor and Councilwoman Diane Harkey, who faced a recall effort earlier this year. “Just like your family.”
In Dana Point’s case, the siblings are Capistrano Beach, Monarch Beach, downtown and the harbor. Like siblings, they squabble.
Another area is the neighborhoods clustered atop Golden Lantern, the city’s main thoroughfare other than Pacific Coast Highway.
“For six tiny square miles we have a lot of interests,” Harkey said. “You don’t have to be in full agreement,and we’re not. But when you’re setting basic policy for the city, everyone gets something, and nobody’s completely happy. But at least it’s moving the city forward.”
Downtown merchants want Pacific Coast Highway traffic, bike and auto, to stop more often and spend more money in town.
“Dana Point has never had a focal point for its business,” said David Duree, chairman of the chamber of commerce. “The tension is between people who want it to stay the way it is and those who want it to grow.”
Hence the Town Center plan.
But even that may pale compared to the harbor dust-up, a 10-year-and-counting process that has pitted boaters against merchants against tourists, with no clear end in sight.
Small boaters in the harbor want nicer digs, but not a full-scale change to the way of life they’re fond of. Many are fighting a big makeover of the aging docks and wharf businesses.
“They’re eliminating 1,100 slips,” said Bruce Heyman, founder of the Dana Point Boaters Association. “Boaters would be happy to keep what they have.”
City officials are responding, seeking new attention while trying to balance residents’ affection for anonymity, developed over decades, and local businesses’ economic hopes, pinned on even greater growth.
“Two years ago we started planning for the town center,” Chotkevys said. “It was a public process that produced a plan we can use.”
Dana Point has expanded its resident boards and oversight groups, Chotkevys said. He rattles off a list: water quality, traffic, library, parks. All have “community involvement,” he said.
“It makes the government more participatory here,” Chotkevys said.
Doesn’t that slow things down?
“You know what’s interesting? It does, but in the long run it doesn’t,” he said. “Think of all the critics at the beginning of the process who went through the effort: They were our biggest supporters in the end.”
Not everyone sees it that way.
In 2004, classic car buff Mark Spizzirri of Family Automotive Group wanted to come to downtown Dana Point. He planned to buy a run-down motel and build a $10 million showroom, complete with a glass lighthouse and three decades of classic and muscle cars. Townhomes were planned on the top floor.
The building never broke ground. Two years later, Spizzirri said Dana Point had “watered down” the proposal so much that it wasn’t worth it. DBN Development LLC of Laguna Hills now plans 22 homes and shops at the site.
Downtown
Redevelopment of the city’s downtown and harbor isn’t going to be easy. But it will be interesting.
Activists from each area,tourism and homeowners, government and business, harbor and town center,are driven.
Chotkevys said he believes the town center plan will happen.
“People are saying this is a great plan,” he said.
The plan basically involves bringing the common recipe of homes as well as interesting restaurants and eclectic shops, so visitors and residents have places to go and things to do in Dana Point.
Pacific Coast Highway currently hinders the plan,cars race through town instead of stopping, staying and buying. A number of options are on the table for dealing with traffic. The city still has that work to do.
But some restaurants and shops already have opened, including a wine bar and a cool bike shop.
Darrin Duhamel’s Revo Cycles sells bikes from $300 to $10,000. It has an espresso bar, a fire pit and valet parking for your bicycle,all in 7,500 square feet, which is massive for a bike shop.
“Let me make this real clear,” Duhamel said. “The city of Dana Point bent over backward to get this place open. It was exceptional.”
The city sees hundreds of cyclists every weekend. Riders, some going from Long Beach to San Diego, stop for coffee midway through the ride. Hence the espresso bar.
Revo is just the kind of shop the city wants more of.
“I’ve seen some of the plans and the restaurants and shops planned downtown and they’re spectacular,” said Mayor Joel Bishop, who became mayor this month. “And the housing elements will bring more energy to downtown, and give it some life after 8 o’clock.”
His favorite part of the plan: getting something on long-empty lots in downtown.
The plan goes before the Coastal Commission in February.
“Most likely they’ll push it off a bit, but we hope they don’t,” Bishop said.
If the Coastal Commission OKs it, all that remains is an economic feasibility study.
Harbor
As for the harbor, Councilwoman Harkey eats breakfast there often, including at Proud Mary’s, which recently burned down in a fire. The harbor is arguably what visitors to Dana Point want, with whale watching, shopping and a still small harbor for middle-class boat owners, many of whom live elsewhere.
The harbor is 35 years old. For more than 10 years, boaters, merchants, the city, as well as county supervisors have been planning its renovation.
The $155 million project covers “landside” (shops, restaurants, parking) and “waterside” (docks, boat slips, marina businesses).
Landside redevelopment, a total redesign of the harbor’s shops and restaurants, will expand business and bring other benefits, according to local merchants.
“We believe this is a good plan for us,” said Jim Miller, 28-year owner of Coffee Importers, a popular harbor cafe.
The landside plan includes a parking structure and is meant to attract more visitors, which Miller pegs now at 2 million to 3 million annually.
But some boaters say this could harm their “side” of the deal: the waterside work, including new docks and bigger berths.
“They’re building new restaurants, new stores and removing parking from the boat launch area,” said Heyman of the boaters association. “They’re massively building out the commercial core at the expense of boaters.”
The harbor needs renovation and merchants should get more, Heyman said. But he opposes current plans.
“We should all be grown-ups and take our lumps,” he said. “But we’re taking our lumps from something that shouldn’t be happening. Don’t build things here that can be built elsewhere (in the city).”
After several missteps, including an incomplete application to the Coastal Commission, the landside proposal is set to go before that body next month. The waterside proposal is at least a year away, according to observers, given the multiple approvals needed.
Financing is another issue,two projects now totaling more than $170 million is a massive financial effort for a city of Dana Point’s size.
“It’s going to happen over time, and somebody has to pay for it,” Harkey said.
