San Clemente : Major Business Park Will Be Considered

Plans that could lead to new commercial development in San Clemente will come before the City Council tonight when it votes on a tentative tract map for a major new business park to be built in the Rancho San Clemente development.

The 117-acre site represents slightly more than one-third of the total acreage set aside for business development in the sprawling, 1,943-acre mixed residential and commercial development.

City planner Steve Flint said the developer, Costa Mesa-based Western Savings and Loan Development Corp., plans to subdivide the site to accommodate 48 individual parcels ranging in size from half an acre to 11 acres.

Light manufacturing companies, as well as high-tech and research firms, are the types of businesses Western Savings hopes to attract to the development, Flint said.

The tract to be considered tonight is bordered by Avenida Pico and Avenida La Pata on the north and Calle Amancer on the south. Access to the business park, to be hidden behind trees and landscaping, would be restricted to Calle Amancer, Flint said.

John Ochsner, vice president of Church Engineering, the Newport Beach firm retained by the developer, said that if the tentative tract map is approved tonight, a final version could be submitted by August. Grading on the site is already under way and construction could begin before the end of summer, he added.