SAN CLEMENTE — The San Clemente City Zoning Administrator on Dec. 23 adopted an interpretation that limits a building’s lower-level space to storage so proposed new uses can meet the city’s parking baseline without a minor exception permit.

Adam Atamian, the city’s zoning administrator, closed a continued public hearing on Project 25-461 and said he would adopt Resolution ZA 25-029 after accepting staff’s recommendation that the lower-level 1,300 square feet at 540 North El Camino Real be restricted to storage "to accommodate the current and proposed uses of the site and shall remain as storage in perpetuity of those uses, period." The action also included a finding that the project is categorically exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act under CEQA Guidelines section 15301.

Staff planner Dave Perillo described the situation to the zoning administrator: the property includes two street addresses, 540 and 542 North El Camino Real. The prior single retail use required 11 parking spaces; Perillo said the lot currently contains seven spaces that do not meet engineering technical standards. With the salon already operating at 542 and a proposed retail/office use at 540, the concurrent uses would require 13 parking spaces under the code. "The lower level floor area of 1,300 square feet would be restricted to storage, indefinitely," Perillo said, a change staff said would reduce the required parking from 13 to nine spaces.

Perillo told the zoning administrator that the city’s most recent parking study did not identify the block as having impacted parking and noted public street parking is available along North El Camino Real. He also said that because the lot had been reconfigured in a nonstandard way, the applicant must obtain an administrative development permit from planning and a building permit to reconfigure the parking, and that engineering would review whether stalls could be perpendicular or diagonal. Perillo said state or federal requirements could supersede a local minimum.

An applicant representative pointed out that a van-accessible stall required by building code could reduce the number of usable stalls ("if a van-accessible stall is required it would be three because that van-accessible striped space would take up a space"), a limitation planning and engineering must account for in the final restriping and building-permit work.

Atamian said he had inspected the property and agreed that an interpretation restricting the lower level to storage was an appropriate way to preserve the parking baseline without imposing a minor exception permit. He directed staff to update the resolution language to make clear the reconfigured parking lot must provide the maximum number of spaces possible under city, state and federal requirements, and removed a fixed four-space baseline in favor of language that allows the ADA and other legal requirements to determine the final count. "Storage is good to have and this is not a large enough building that it would be a warehouse," Atamian said, explaining the reasoning for treating the storage as ancillary to retail.

The resolution adoption includes conditions that future changes in use cannot result in a net increase in required parking without a shared-parking or off-site parking agreement or a parking waiver; staff will enforce the storage restriction and require approved restriping and any relevant permits before issuing a certificate of occupancy.

The Zoning Administrator adjourned the special meeting and said the next regular meeting will be at 3 p.m. on Jan. 22, 2026, in the Community Development Department, 1st Floor Community Room, 910 Calle Negosyo, San Clemente, California.