Please help us stop the destruction of Trafalgar Canyon
Trafalgar Canyon is protected by both the City of San Clemente laws and the California Coastal Act of 1976
Help us fight Coastal Commission conditional approval of a massive development in Trafalgar Canyon
The massive project still requires a major variance from the City of San Clemente to proceed. So there is time to Save Trafalgar Canyon.
What Happened? in 2019, the Coastal Commission unanimously denied this project. But on February 8, 2024, after further review, and including consideration that the project significantly violates city and coastal laws, the Commission somehow conditionally approved:
- A 4527 square foot home with an almost 13,000 square foot development footprint.
- The development is right in the middle of Trafalgar Canyon, violating city and state law.
- The project requires removal of 1675 cubic yards of Trafalgar Canyon and will be surrounded by a 6 foot radiant heat barrier wall.
- It significantly violates the California Coastal Act with major infringement into Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Areas.
The Staff Report contained detailed findings that the project was inconsistent with Coastal Act Policies governing geologic hazards, visual coastal resources, and ESHA (Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Areas). It would violate the required 15-foot setback from a canyon edge, and its extensive retaining walls would cause significant alterations to natural landforms. It would be sited almost entirely within the required 100-foot ESHA buffer, in some cases having zero ESHA buffer.
Stay tuned to see how you can help!
See Below for the previous archives (Previous hearing was June, 2019)
June 16, 2019 Update
We are grateful beyond words to the Coastal Commissioners who despite a Staff Recommendation to approve the project voted to deny 9 to 0 on June 14th. The Friends of Trafalgar Canyon were able to successfully prove:
- The entire proposed home/lot is 'in Trafalgar Canyon' and building violates City building codes and the Coastal Act
- The homesite sits in an area of Environmentally Sensitive Habitat and negative impacts can't be avoided
- The lot is geologically unsafe and would require large scale destructive work to fix
- City processes were not followed
Of all these points, the last is the most important as we were able to show that that approval from the City of San Clemente did not follow the required processes.
Sadly however our work here is not done. Most likely the developer will start from square one with the City of San Clemente as soon as they can (or sue the Coastal Commission). We need your help now with the City of San Clemente to let them know we won't stand by while they destroy Trafalgar Canyon.