SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Nursery Gets OK to Stay in Business

A family-owned nursery that has been operating in a residential area won the backing of the City Council this week over the objections of several of its neighbors.

The council voted unanimously Tuesday to allow Leroy and Barbara Stevens to continue operating their Ortega Highway wholesale nursery even though it is located in a residential zone that restricts commercial enterprises.

The vote ignored a recommendation from the city staff and overturned a May 11 action by the Planning Commission that revoked their business permit.

Councilman Gary L. Hausdorfer applauded the work the couple has done to restore the three-acre parcel and turn it into a nursery. He asked the city staff to start working on a change of zoning for the property and to allow retail use.

“I receive more compliments about this property than any property around,” Hausdorfer said.

But the council’s comments came after some harsh criticism of the nursery by some of its neighbors. Ortega Highway resident Claire Read complained that the Stevenses have been in business long before they had a permit to operate.

Neighbor Phyllis Hess said the couple had advertised as a retail nursery even though that was forbidden by the city.

“I think we have had enough,” Hess said. “We are zoned for small estates. We don’t want commercial on that property.”

But Mayor Gil Jones, speaking for the rest of the council, lauded the couple’s efforts.

“I don’t have the courage to sit up here and put the Stevenses out of business,” said the mayor, who lives next to a nursery himself in the city’s historic Los Rios District. “They’ve worked too hard.”