A private school’s 25-acre campus in San Juan Capistrano is getting a little bigger despite some pushback from local residents who say it could worsen traffic and parking issues in the area.
“Schools create traffic,” Mayor Troy Bourne said at the March 4 meeting. “They also create great communities.”
Despite the concerns, San Juan Capistrano City Council members unanimously approved a plan allowing future expansion of St. Margaret’s Episcopal School into a neighboring office park.
Located at the intersection of Ortega Highway and Rancho Viejo Road, Ortega Village Center — where the school is slated to expand — currently operates as a commercial office park, including healthcare facilities and local businesses like Bad to the Bone BBQ.
City council members unanimously approved the 3.7-acre expansion during the March 4 meeting. The vote also rezoned the area to allow educational uses.
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Founded in 1979, St. Margaret’s Episcopal School is a private school that serves over 1,200 students from preschool through grade 12 on its current 25-acre campus.
The school owns three of the properties involved in the proposed expansion and will assume ownership of the fourth property — a portion of the Ortega Village Center parking lot — in November 2025.
According to their proposal, St. Margaret’s plans to immediately redevelop one of the buildings — currently vacant, with the exception of a school gym remodeled in 2019 — into a tutoring and athletics facility.
Though the plan does not propose any new construction, some San Juan Capistrano residents are wary, expressing concerns about potentially worsening existing issues faced in recent years — namely traffic and parking.
The planning commission also voted unanimously to recommend for approval by the city council on Feb. 12.
The majority of written public comments were against approval, with the exception of one resident who expressed support for the expansion.
“It’s outrageous that the interests of a few wealthy individuals can have such a huge effect on so many,” resident Jim Schaffer wrote to the planning commission. “This school is now set to take over nearly the entire area that residents on this side of the 5 freeway use to avoid the terrible traffic caused by unchecked growth and expansion.”
Concerns about the city’s traffic congestion have mounted in recent years and remain prevalent in public opinion regarding other developments.
Most recently, a five-story apartment complex was approved for construction in San Juan Plaza, despite widespread public concerns about traffic congestion and parking.
[Read: A South Orange County City Grapples With State Housing Mandates]
Meanwhile, project manager Laurel Reimer emphasized that there should be no increase in traffic because the school has no plans to increase the number of staff or students on campus.
Additionally, they anticipate that travel patterns around the school will remain unchanged.
St. Margaret’s has maintained a maximum student population of 1,234 as defined in a 2010 development agreement. Any further increases in student or staff capacity would necessitate city council approval.
Still, some residents worry that the school’s expansion is another example of unchecked growth catering to students outside the local community.
“I am astounded as to why our city would continue to allow this private school to expand its footprint when the reciprocal benefits are slim,” resident Eileen Vansell wrote to the planning commission on Feb. 10. “Why should we as a city harm our local small businesses just so a wealthy private entity can expand their own bottom line?”
In a letter to the city council, 30-year resident Craig Morris highlighted that the majority of St. Margaret’s students live outside of the city.
According to Jeneen Graham, Head of St. Margaret’s, 30% of the existing student population resides in San Juan Capistrano.
Representatives from St. Margaret’s also emphasized that they serve the local community through the Breakthrough Program, which provides free summer programming to hundreds of local students, primarily from Marco Forster Middle School.
They are also the largest employer in San Juan Capistrano, according to a 2022 report from the school.
Planning Commissioner Tami Wilhelm emphasized her hope for increasing the number of local residents in attendance at the February meeting.
According to Graham, San Juan Capistrano residents do not receive priority status in the admissions process. Other than the 20 local students admitted at the time of the capacity increase, as defined in a 2010 development agreement, there are currently no requirements on the number of local students in attendance.
Though some retail units will be displaced by the expansion in the coming years, city officials expect a negligible impact on tax revenue.
St. Margaret’s is currently undergoing construction of a 30,000-square-foot Student Commons building, which broke ground in January of this year and is expected to be completed by fall 2026.
The school plans to redevelop the second building for educational use after the lease ends in 2034. School officials intend to maintain the lease structure of the third property, which is partially occupied by school administrative offices, alongside dental, consulting and financial services unassociated with the school.