San Juan Capistrano’s 1.5-acre Putuidem Village park was exactly what preservationists and descendants of the early Acjachemen people envisioned for the big piece of untouched property the city has near the 5 Freeway.

With its traditional kiicha dwellings showing how the area’s earliest residents lived, a walking path with educational posters and a small amphitheater, “it was beyond our expectations,” said Pat Martz, board president of the California Cultural Resource Preservation Alliance and member of the committee that helped plan the park. “They did a beautiful job, and they built it without disturbing the ground,” she said

So, when she and other preservation groups saw that city leaders planned to invite proposals to lease other portions of the Northwest Open Space from groups that included local developers, “we were really shocked,” she said.

Tucked between the 5 Freeway to the east and rolling hills to the west, the 65.5-acre Northwest Open Space was 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.

The city’s residents “didn’t tax themselves to have a development there,” Martz said.

Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation’s new tribal park in the Northwest Open Space in San Juan Capistrano, CA, on Friday, December 3, 2021. The Village at Putuidem, a 1.5-acre park, includes an amphitheater area with boulders and log seats, a trail and various depictions of the Juaneño way of life, including ramadas, kiichas — a thatch home, and manos — a ground stone tool. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Martz’s group, along with several other organizations focused on preservation and members of the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, sent a letter to city leaders this week calling for the Northwest Open Space to be permanently protected from development.

The property is mostly grassy, undeveloped land, with the Putuidem Village Park and a dog park using about 4 acres. There’s also the historic Swanner House, which is leased as a vineyard and wine tasting venue.

The area is especially meaningful to descendants of the area’s first people, encompassing what’s left of the original village of Putuidem, which was home to members of the Acjachemen Nation for thousands of years before they were driven out.

In 2017, when the city paid off the bonds that funded acquisition of the 65.5 acres, San Juan Capistrano leaders went looking for parties interested in leasing a portion, eventually entering into an agreement to turn some of it into a campground with traditional cottages, RV spots and opportunities for glamping.

Community members pushed back on that idea, many saying it didn’t honor the cultural significance of the site or the desire to keep the property as passive open space.

Eventually, the group that put forward the camping proposal “didn’t want the negative feedback that they had, and just walked,” said Councilman Sergio Farias, who represents the district that includes the Northwest Open Space.

Now, with the lease on the Swanner House up in September, city leaders are back out looking for proposals for use of the venue and, potentially, the rest of the Northwest Open Space.

Joyce Perry, cultural resource director for the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, said she and others who signed onto the letter ideally want the site to be kept open and preserved, “and we would like to see any kind of development being put elsewhere.”

The land there is considered “extraordinarily important,” she said, because of the cultural significance of the ancient village and what’s buried below.

In their letter to city leaders, the groups said the site is “specifically known to harbor prehistoric human remains and other archaeological artifacts.”

Perry also argued keeping the property undeveloped aligns with the spirit of the bond measure passed by voters to acquire the land.

“The fact of the matter is, the citizens of San Juan Capistrano are the ones that have voted to keep open space,” Perry said. “And so those are the constituents, and that’s who (city leaders) need to listen to.”

Farias said Measure D, approved by 71% of voters in 1990, specifies property obtained with its funds were to be acquired “in order to save these lands from potential residential and commercial development and to develop youth, senior and other community facilities.”

The city may not have the funds to maintain a conservancy on the land, he said, and “I don’t know that that would really be the best benefit to our residents.”

“I don’t think that it just needs to sit, as it is,” he said.

Farias said any project chosen would be sensitive to what may be buried in the area, and he would prefer to completely avoid any particular area where its known artifacts or remains are located. His focus, he said, is on making the site a destination that residents and visitors really use.

“I don’t think we need to make necessarily a lot of money off of it. We don’t need this to be a revenue generator,” Farias said. “What we would like is just to activate the property.”

Dan Almquist, whose company Frontier Real Estate Investments is the developer behind the new River Street Market that just began construction in the Los Rios district, said he plans to submit an idea for the Northwest Open Space similar to what he proposed at the riding park off Ortega Highway last year, featuring equestrian uses and space set aside for open land.

A monitoring process to assess what cultural elements might be underground is “a requirement of doing anything in the city,” he noted.

“I really don’t think that physical structures are what bring people to this property,” Almquist said. “I think the natural beauty of the lands and the heritage of the lands, if highlighted properly, to me that’s what so special.”

Perry said the relationship between tribal members and city leaders has always been a good one, and she hopes they can work hand-in-hand to make the Northwest Open Space a place that stays true to what residents originally intended the site to be.

“I think this could be a win-win for all of us, provided they keep their word,” she said.

It seems for now, fears of an affordable housing development on the property – a concern that had been raised by the preservation groups – can be tempered.

Because the city plans to pursue a new lease, officials were required to consider proposals from affordable housing developers under the state’s Surplus Land Act, which requires local governments to give notice that excess public land is available.The city received no bites during a 60-day notice period, officials said.