City Plans to Enhance Camino Capistrano Median at Southern San Juan Limits

BY COLLIN BREAUX

The City of San Juan Capistrano recently spruced up the median at the intersection of Del Obispo Street and Old Mission Road by adding greenery to it.

City officials are now looking at similar enhancements on Camino Capistrano at the city’s southern limits, near Costco and the Dana Point border.

The City Council unanimously approved such measures as recommended by staff on Tuesday, Feb. 7.

The Del Obispo/Old Mission Road intersection was recently beautified since it is considered a “gateway” entrance point into the city, and city staff want to beautify the Camino Capistrano corridor since that section is also considered an access point into San Juan.

“The work would include new brick pavers, drought-tolerant plantings and enhanced irrigation,” Public Works Director Tom Toman said. “The five existing eucalyptus trees that are in the medians right now would remain.”

The modification would be done by Brightview Landscaping, the city’s make little homes. That’s an opportunity to address that.”

The El Horno underpass also doesn’t currently have walking facilities that Caltrans can address, he said.

“The quadrant’s just super bare, so another opportunity there. As you get closer to the commercial side, that fence is pretty beat-up—so replacing the fencing,” Corona said of other enhancement plans. “Very overgrown trees; addressing those.”

Caltrans will also confer with the City of San Juan Capistrano on appropriate iconography to put on the underpass columns for a local look and feel.

“This project is made possible by a program called Clean California. It’s a three-year initiative,” Corona said. “It started in 2021, so we’re about halfway through. It’s going to end in 2024. It allocates about $1.1 billion dollars to improving the safety and beautification of our public spaces.”

San Juan Public Works Director Tom Toman said Corona approached City Manager Ben Siegel and him about the project a year ago.

The El Horno project is currently out to bid for contract work.

“It’s probably going to take until midMarch to award the contract and then another month to approve it. We’re probably looking at construction starting, maybe, in late April to early May,” Corona said. “This isn’t the highway-widening job, so expect it to be about 120 days for construction to be complete.”

Councilmember John Taylor thanked Corona and Caltrans for the coming improvements.

“This undercrossing’s going to be great,” he said.

(Cont. from page 3) a place to sit and wait for a class, or to visit one of our counselors.”

Jess said that few things were more satisfying as a parent than to see his son follow through with the project as Conner’s older brother did, knowing the two have worked hard at being Boy Scouts for more than 10 years.

“There’s a reason why there’s a very low percentage of Cub Scouts that become Eagle Scouts, because it’s a haul,” said Jess. “But you learn a lot (of skills) and volunteer a lot, and it’s very worth the investment they made.” regular landscape contractor, who also handled the Old Mission Road intersection beautification.

“Brightview’s proposal for the work is $70,000,” Toman said. “Including administrative and project management costs, staff anticipates the total cost to be about $100,000.”

The Camino Capistrano median improvements are also being done in conjunction with a citywide street pavement rehabilitation project, which recently began on Camino Capistrano and will soon expand to neighborhood streets. Funds set aside for the rehabilitation project are sufficient to cover the proposed median enhancement.

Newly elected Councilmember John Campbell said he was “certainly” in favor of the proposed improvements.

“I’ve had the incredible opportunity to knock on a lot of doors in the last few months and, several times constituents have mentioned the condition of our streets, as far as the physical appearance and their dissatisfaction, as far as that everything looks worn out and needing attention,” Campbell said.

Mayor Howard Hart and Councilmember Troy Bourne also mentioned wanting to eventually place welcome signs at the gateway points specifying when motorists enter San Juan, a matter city staff will research.

Conner is currently working on all the paperwork necessary for his application to be an Eagle Scout and expects the process to be completed in the next four or five months. Regardless of the wait, he is looking forward to eventually receiving his certificate, and he is also enjoying that he doesn’t need to do any more significant projects after putting so much time and energy into the planters.

Now, he can focus more on school and playing lacrosse, he said.

Earning the distinction of Eagle Scout is “really important,” Conner added, as it reflects the work he’s put into being a Scout since he joined the Cub Scouts around nine years ago.

“It’s really nice to think about all the things I’ve learned along the way and the skills that I’ve learned from all the merit badges and campouts that I’ve done,” he said.