Along with directly electing the city’s mayor for the first time, San Clemente voters will be deciding two other City Council races, for District 1 and 2, in November.
This election completes the city’s transition to district-based elections.
The District 2 race pits two incumbents who now live in the same part of the city against each other: Mark Enmeier and Steve Knoblock.
The race for District 1 guarantees a new face on the dais, with Steve Camp, a principal architect and business owner, Donna Vidrine, a nurse consultant, and Aaron Washington, a deputy program manager, vying for the seat.
We asked the candidates questions about housing, city finances, transparency, and more, which you can read in our voter guide.
Here are their answers to a couple of questions:
How can the city best meet the demand and mandates for more housing, including at lower price points, while also preserving local control and the quality of life for existing neighborhoods and residents?
District 1
Camp: I believe in local control over land use and housing decisions that impact our community’s quality of life. Local residents, not Sacramento politicians, should determine which housing plans will provide more housing opportunities while preserving our city’s small-town coastal character.
As a councilman, I will work with our state representatives to repeal or modify Sacramento high-density housing requirements to allow more local flexibility in meeting future housing goals.
As a member of the city Planning Commission, I consider very carefully each housing proposal on its merits. I want housing that maintains our city’s quality of life. I will bring this same approach to the City Council.
Vidrine: Concentrate new housing where it makes the most sense. Favor infill, underused commercial properties, mixed-use corridors, and sites already identified through the Housing Overlay rather than broadly changing established single-family neighborhoods.
Make working- and middle-income housing a real priority. The city is currently evaluating its inclusionary housing policy; the existing program requires 4% very-low-income units in projects of six or more units, while a stronger policy has been under review.
Use incentives as well as requirements. For projects providing meaningful affordable or workforce housing, the city can offer faster permitting, predictable objective standards, density incentives where appropriate, fee assistance, and partnerships using affordable-housing funds. That makes it more likely that affordable units actually get built rather than remaining only a planning target. San Clemente’s Housing Action Plan specifically calls for incentives, financial assistance, and administrative support for affordable housing.
Protect neighborhood character through good design rather than trying to stop all growth.
Treat parking, traffic, water, public safety, schools, and infrastructure as part of housing planning. Higher-density housing is most successful when its impacts are considered at the planning stage.
Make ADUs part of the solution — but not the whole solution. ADUs can provide smaller rental homes for relatives, seniors, young adults, and workers while adding housing gradually within existing neighborhoods.
San Clemente should meet its state housing requirements thoughtfully by planning housing where it fits, prioritizing homes affordable to working families, using strong design standards, and making sure transportation, parking and infrastructure keep pace. We can create more housing choices while protecting the character and quality of life that existing residents value.
Washington: The city must identify areas where this is possible, and we really have to consider all the infrastructure impacts (water/sewage/power demands/increase requirements for public safety, health care with increased population).
Once it is established that we can, in fact, support these increases, the city needs to create incentives that will motivate developers to want to build. Just paying in-lieu fees is not the answer.
District 2
Enmeier: San Clemente has changed our zoning layout to include more mixed-use areas. However, we need to be doing more to incentivize developers to transform underutilized properties into mixed-use dwellings.
At the same time, we should be exploring opportunities to work in collaboration with other government and private entities to come up with solutions where all parties benefit.
San Juan Capistrano is a prime example of how to revitalize a city hall while also creating new affordable housing. We should try to replicate that with our own dilapidated city hall off of Presidio.
Knoblock: By eliminating the expensive and time-consuming environmental review.
Also by eliminating the city Planning Commission’s design review subcommittee. This subcommittee adds tens of thousands of dollars and many months to the development process. Resulting in fewer homes at a larger cost.
I championed the permit streamline process, which has been implemented in our town. It reduces the amount of bureaucratic review of housing projects and allows for more housing permits to be issued quicker and at less cost to the consumer.
How should the city balance rising costs, paying off debts, such as pension liabilities, and building reserves, all while meeting residents’ needs? Should a solution involve finding new revenue, economic development, trimming the budget, or something else entirely?
District 1
Camp: I believe that San Clemente should focus on funding essential city services first and foremost. Non-essential spending should be carefully scrutinized and strictly limited. In addition, I will work to attract new high-quality small business employers to help expand San Clemente’s financial base, while also streamlining our city’s permitting process to help existing local businesses thrive and generate more revenues.
As a councilman, I will protect city taxpayers from excessive pension debt and oppose higher taxes on local residents.
Vidrine: Prioritize public safety, infrastructure, beaches, parks, and the services residents rely on while continually reviewing city spending for efficiencies and unnecessary costs. Protect San Clemente’s emergency reserves, meet our financial obligations, and avoid shifting today’s costs onto future residents.
Support local businesses, strengthen our visitor economy, attract appropriate economic development, and aggressively pursue grants and outside funding to reduce pressure on local taxpayers.
San Clemente needs to provide the services residents expect while remaining financially responsible. I support maintaining healthy emergency reserves, meeting our debt obligations, and continually reviewing spending to make sure taxpayers are receiving value for their money. But fiscal responsibility isn’t only about cutting. We also need to grow our local economy, support our businesses, strengthen tourism, and pursue state, federal and regional funding whenever possible.
My goal is long-term financial stability: protect essential services today while making responsible decisions that don’t leave tomorrow’s residents paying today’s bills.
Washington: The city should prioritize the most essential services residents require per a long-range plan that spans 8-10 years (4-5 prior and after the current year).
They should study the trends to see if our debt is staying stable, increasing or decreasing. We should also do a review of all consulting contracts to ensure we are getting our ROI and not just wasting money on something we may be losing sight on.
Treat city money like it is our checkbook and constantly have checks and balances.
District 2
Enmeier: I am proud to say that our city has a balanced budget.
While in office, we have invested $5 million to lower our pension liability, which puts our city on a firm foundation for the future.
However, costs continue to rise while new requests for beach nourishment and fire prevention are being made. The voters of San Clemente will need to decide if these new endeavors warrant new funds through Measure M. If not, then our council will have to make some hard choices in the coming years on our priorities.
Knoblock: San Clemente is well managed and adequately covers the problem of rising costs through prioritizing expenditures and adjusting staffing needs. We, like other cities, have an unfunded pension liability caused by State CalPERS mismanagement.
We have set aside millions on an annual basis to cover the shortfall and have recently set an investment trust fund to compensate for underfunding.
Read more of the voter guide, including what the candidates said would make them good leaders and how they would represent the city’s diverse community at ocregister.com/voter-guide.
Ballots may be returned by mail (must be postmarked by Nov. 3 and received within a week of Election Day) or to the OC Registrar of Voters’ drop boxes around town now, and the first vote centers will open for casting ballots in person on Oct. 24.