Surfers will have to ride waves in the ocean, for now.

A pitch for an artificial wave pool in San Juan Capistrano has wiped out, with city officials opting to look at other proposals for possible future uses of the city’s Northwest Open Space area.

Officials announced seven proposals were submitted with ideas on what to do with the 65.5 acres of undeveloped land, with three selected during an executive session on April 19 to move on to the next phase.

The three proposals selected are expected to be presented at a public workshop on May 17; they come from C&C Development, Frontier Real Estate Investments and Capistrano Vineyards and were chosen for further consideration based on their proposed concepts, compatibility with current uses on the site and operating experience, a city announcement said.

Among the proposals not selected was the wave park concept from San Juan Capistrano-based Pacifico Development, which held a casual community meeting recently to hear feedback for what it had dubbed “Olas Ranch,” a surf-meets-turf plan that incorporated a community swimming pool, the wave pool, equestrian centers and an events center.

“Pacifico Development would like to thank the community for their support of the Olas Ranch project. Unfortunately, the City Council did not approve the project moving forward to the public hearing round,” the development company responded in a statement. “We respect the City Council’s decision and will look to work on other projects within the community.”

The presentation two weeks ago generated buzz, packing Hennessey’s Tavern with curious residents and surfers, among the crowd pro skater and local resident Ryan Sheckler, who spoke in favor of the wave pool plan.

Wave pools are gaining traction around the world, with four planned in the Palm Desert region using various technologies, two that would be open to the public and two private.

The Northwest Open Space is a 65.5-acre, largely undeveloped property bought by the city in the 1990s with money raised by the sale of bonds approved by voters with the purpose of acquiring more open space.

Any future potential use of the property would require city approvals and go through the community review process.

After a 2019 proposal for a campground with opportunities for “glamping” received pushback from residents, Councilman Sergio Farias, who represents the area encompassing the Northwest Open Space, said he and other city leaders “learned our lessons” on what residents don’t want to see on the 65-acre site.

“I think the feedback we got was that it was maybe too intensive,” he said of that proposal.

Instead, community members said they hoped for a more passive use of the space that respects the land’s cultural and archaeological significance to San Juan Capistrano’s first residents, the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians.

The wave pool proposal seemed like “exactly what our residents told us already they didn’t want,” Farias said.

“We don’t need someone that’s going to create a ton of revenue for us,” he said. “We want something that our residents could enjoy and that activates the space and that’s sensitive to what’s out there right now.”

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