Read the February 19 meeting.

If you can please stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance. Ready, begin.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

If you can remain standing, our police chaplain is going to give us our invocation. If you

join me in prayer. Father God, we thank you for this opportunity tonight to begin, God, in your throne room, to come boldly before your throne, Lord, and find help and grace in our time of need. God, and certainly we acknowledge that the concerns that we raised tonight and the issues that will be considered, God, will affect lives and ours and those of our neighbors. So Lord, you tell us that we can come and seek you out and find, Lord, your plans and your purposes. You tell us in your word that as we acknowledge you in

all of our ways that you'll direct our steps. You just call us to walk in humility, God, to seek your will, and we'll find it. So Lord, we come and ask that you would give us the grace to do those things tonight, that you would be with the decisions that are made, Lord, that God, you would overshadow all those things, and in the end, God, we would find your perfect will for ourselves, for our neighbors, for our city, God. That we would live in peace, Lord, and in full acknowledgement of our Savior who came and lived and died and rose again. So bless this time together tonight. We'll be with all those who are speaking, God, and

Father may, Lord, your will win out in the end, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you. You may be seated. I'm going to entertain a motion right now to continue item 65A and 65B.

I make a motion.

Is there a second? There's a second. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed, motion carries. That's been continued for two weeks.

65A and B.

65A and B. If anybody's here to speak on that, you can go home. Because even before the consent calendar, we're going to get into the main event. We're going to go about 50 rounds. I don't know how many speakers we have, but we have a lot of speakers.

and this is um 75 e we've already opened up the public hearing previously and then i i uh temporarily suspended the meeting so we could continue today so um let's go ahead and start with Peter Adame followed by Jason Venable I believe both from Park Santiago and if they're outside if somebody could get them outside and let

them in so they can speak also Timo Keto log K E T O L G and Patricia Bricken

Anybody here? Peter here? Jason here? Timo here? Patricia here? Come on up and speak. Madam Clerk, if you can bring the other mic down.

Can they hear outside? Do you know? They can?

Okay. Please go ahead.

Good evening, Council Members. My name is Patricia Bricken. I am the daughter of the late former Mayor Gordon Bricken. I am here to talk about the architecture about this project. I believe it is a very poor design. It does not belong in this area. none of these buildings around there even have any kind of resemblance to that and it goes right from this project to single and a single story family dwellings right next to it it is a big

eyesore a six-story building right next to a single story building right just down 100 feet away and it's very poor design it's futuristic it does not it does not belong in this area of the city it fits more in line with the south coast area or someplace in irvine and it will within a decade or so it will be obsolete it's a fad

is a fad design and it will be obsolete when my father had the job of

determining the architecture of the train station that we all know and love today he had the forethought to to think about what what it would be in 20, 30 years and to make sure it was relevant today as it was 40 years ago when it was built. 40 years from now, this building will be very obsolete and will be an eyesore and a sore thumb to the area and a blight. So I would encourage you to turn down this building, if not for the other items that are going

to be presented but for also the architecture and maybe having another building that has that blends in more to the current architectures of the apartment and the townhouses in the area have a

good night thank you patricia um ruben navarrete followed by ruben garcia

and meanwhile I assume that Peter Adame, Jason Venavol and Timo are not here.

Please go ahead Ruben.

Good evening Mayor and City Council members. My name is Ruben Garcia and I'm a member of the local Union Local 652. I'm here tonight to voice my support for that Edmonton project. This project will provide local jobs that will allow construction workers like myself that live here in the area to spend less time on the road and more time with our families.

As a construction labor, we go where the work is and sometimes that can be as far as Los Angeles, San Diego, even in the Inland Empire. I ask for your support for this project that will allow me and some other co-workers to spend more time with our families and less time in the road.

Thank you, Rowan Garcia. Thank you.

Glenda Newcomer.

Glenda Newcomer.

Desiree Hernandez. Desiree Hernandez.

Anybody outside maybe making sure that these folks are not out there? Jasmine Diaz.

Do I get this? Go ahead. Hi, my name is Desiree. I am 22 and I'm a single mother and I am for this project. I believe this project is setting up a base for families to start and for families to grow. This project is offering so many opportunities to individuals like me who are seeking and need close proximities to their homes. This location offers opportunities and if I was given the opportunity to be a tenant, this establishment, then I would use our public transportation so it would be one less car on the road and one less car causing traffic throughout the day. and think of others who would do the same.

I feel that the individuals against the project aren't looking at the big picture. Santa Ana has always been in constant growth as a major city and is showing no sign of slowing down. Mentalities need to change. I understand that you guys have been working hard to establish a utopia for yourselves, but maybe you need to step back and look around at the bigger picture. If there was more people with the same mentality as you, then the land we are standing on will have never been established and would still be farmland. It wouldn't be homes to 40,000 individuals.

You're taking away opportunities from single moms, college students, small families, roommates, because you lack change and lack perspective.

Donald.

Donald Sepulveda.

Mark Ouellette.

Followed by Grant Herridge, H-E-R-I, maybe Herringer.

Followed by Suzanne Hernandez.

Patty Mays.

I'm sure some of these folks aren't outside. Maybe I could give the clerk these names and make sure that they're not outside. But Patty Mays?

She's coming.

Got it.

All right.

Good evening, mayor and council people. I've been in front of you many, many times since the first meeting that we had at the Discovery Cube, where over 500 neighbors showed up to say that this is not the project for this corner. And none of the opposition that's here tonight were there then. I want to say that I've lived in Park Santiago over 30 years. Park Santiago is not against unions. My family has many union members. We're not against development. We're against this project. We're not against change. We don't live in a utopia.

We understand what change is. We just want the correct change. Okay? Park Santiago is against high density, this project, 2525. Because within a half mile radius of this project, there are 3,700 apartments going in. main place town and country and the 22 freeway and I know that that these things couldn't be in they could could not be included when you did the environmental impact study but you know about it we've explained it to you that this is going in so you need to keep that in mind we want a responsible

development at this site the development bought this property knowing it was

zoned for professional use, not for 476 high-density apartments. Please listen to your planning commission and vote no on this project.

Thank you.

I just want to say let's let the speakers speak. And there's not a rally. It's not a who can clap the loudest. If you really want to do something, do this or whatever. Something supportive and silent.

And we'll continue. So 1 through 20. If people know, if they're 1 through 20, come on up. Right now, I'm at number 16. But if you're between 1 and 20 and you know it, come on down. Tell me your name and I'll let you speak. And right now Mark Angel is to be followed by Alan Fuller.

Go ahead. Give me your name, please.

Mr. Mayor and Council Members, my name is Mark Angel. I've lived in Park Tantyago for 42 years. So we've heard from the developer. He wants to build his building, get his money, and he's gone.

Speak up as much as you can.

Alright. The developer wants to get his money back, build his project. The labor union wants to build the project so they have jobs. The people that spoke about renting the apartments, they don't aspire to be a permanent resident, so all these things are temporary. but if you vote against us tonight that's a permanent and it's a permanent we have to live with forever

also when I was young we lived in South St. Anna by the college and my grandparents lived in Orange to get to Orange we had to drive up Flower Street stop, cross two lanes of highway going south two lanes of highway going north there was no main bridge so traffic does never get it never gets better it only gets worse and I think this is going to be causing us a major problem you know as soon as it's

finished thank you no clapping just go like this Alan Alan Fuller followed by

Gus Herrera yes my name is Alan Fuller I've lived in Park Santiago for 42 years with Mark, of our neighborhood 1,200 homes would be overwhelmed by 475 apartments right in our neighborhood. We have no buffer. They're going to be there. You can't avoid them.

The staff has reported on these seven other high-density projects that are underway, and there's an additional 1900 in that main place I don't think we need to have this size of a development in our neighborhood thank you thank you Gus

thus a red up followed by Ruth Keller and after that anybody that's between 20 and 30 I know you all have numbers you're welcome to come on in if you're between 20 and 30. If we have Ruth Keller, we'll go to her. If not, is David Salton in? There is. Come on down, David, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, and my fellow residents of Santa Ana. My name's David Slayton and my wife and I looked for a long time choosing a home before finding the gem that is Park Santiago. As has been made vividly clear it is a beautiful quiet friendly ethnically rich neighborhood community with a long and rich history. While there are restaurants and shopping close by it is a charm of its own and we were so glad to be able to become part of it. We see that charm now under attack by a rich la developer who wants you city council to change the rules and city and

santa anna's city plans for him we residents of your city are asking you respectfully and from our hearts to leave the city plan as it is designed and as your planning commission urged you to and save the heritage of our community from being lost forever my family lived for years in irvine and we watched that city grow. While we did not dwell on the way that City Council tenaciously adhered to their plan, we now see they were wise to do so. That city, while adding many high-density housing projects, adamantly kept them from encroaching on the many established single-family

communities. Our family took for granted that that was their mission and duty of the elected officials. Tonight we hope that we can see the same adherence to duty in the City Council that we now call home. I know I will be labeled a no-growth NIMBY for urging you to keep the current plan, but that's not the case. I am pro-growth. And these fine construction workers that we see in this room need and should have well-paying projects to work on. And fortunately, there are many such projects now or soon to be underway within a half mile of our neighborhood.

Those locations make so much more sense than this one. Further, the 2525 property is well located for development within the current city plan to provide office space for thousands of people who live nearby and the thousands more who will be here soon in those other projects. Do we have to force all high-tech employers to locate to our south? I think this location would be an excellent step to attracting these type businesses right here. We've seen the developers movie and I don't think that the Addington is a bad project. It is just the wrong project for

this location. Thank you, David. If you could conclude. Thank you for listening. Let's let

Carol continue. Carol Salton or Slayton. I think you know David. No, I've never met him.

Never met him. No, no. Anyway, I'm kind of appalled that the council member whose residents and voters are directly impacted by this project isn't even here. He's not listening to us. Where is he? Two weeks ago, he left for an hour to eat dinner. Didn't listen to us. Why are we doing this? That's just appalling. Anyway, I've been a resident of Santa Ana for two years now, resident of Irvine for 30 years. As my husband said, we chose this place. Our

neighbors are amazing. The nicest people we've ever seen. And Irvine is building lots of high rises, but none near single family residents. Irvine knows the importance to protect, respect, and preserve their existing neighborhoods. Santa Ana needs to do the same if it wants the status and respect that they deserve. We need that in Santa Ana. We need to respect that. We know that the EIR traffic study was flawed and cannot be defended, even by the traffic engineer at the Planning Commission who tried to explain that there's no impact.

Main Street and the other streets in our neighborhood will be blocked. We also realize that an office building would produce traffic, but in the opposite direction of the residents. And this is an important detail that wasn't even addressed. Also, the idea of millennials not using their cars and using other modes of transportation is preposterous. I know, I have two millennials. Recent studies in San Francisco and other cities have proven that traffic is worse than before with additional Lyft, Uber, and delivery vans.

And I emailed you a copy of that to each one of you so you could see the exact 160% more traffic because the millennials are using Lyft and Uber and still have their cars. From an economic standpoint, there are 3,700 high-end apartments within a half a mile of this. Where would these people work? if you take away prime professional and office space we need this as prime office space please include carol okay please do not rezone this development should be elsewhere and the unions

workers can still work we're not taking that away from any thank you thank you chris uh reese

followed by Frank Lopez.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. My name is Chris Reese. I'm the Orange County Business Council's vice president for workforce and economic development and also a resident of Floral Park. On behalf of OCBC, I'm happy to provide our organization's support for the Addington tonight. As the region's leading voice for business and economic development, we believe and have a vested interest in this project's success and long-term economic benefits for the city and the region. Our state faces a critical housing need. We strongly believe that a diverse housing market is critical to our long-term success and viability.

In fact, OCBC met last week with Governor Newsom, who discussed the Huntington Beach lawsuit and the need for every city to step up and build housing in the region to meet our state-mandated requirements. In the absence of housing, many members of our talented workforce will end up living and working outside of this region. projects like the Addington help for our long-term economic success for Orange County. Further, as a resident and a parent of two young Santiago turtles, I'm very concerned that the lack of housing mix and the lack of innovative blend in our community

will mean that our children won't have a place to live and work and won't find a home in Santa Ana in the future. And I'd like my children to be able to live near me. We cannot afford to turn aside revenue and housing growth at the Addington and projects like it in the future will generate. Therefore, on behalf of the Orange County Business Council and myself as a resident of Santa Ana, I urge you to approve the Addington and consider the positive economic benefits that it brings to our town. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you, Chris.

Frank Lopez,

followed by Giles Candy. Please go ahead.

Good evening. My name is Frank Lopez, and I am a Santiago resident. Now, the reason why I'm here,

we've been here for I don't know how many months now, and I've learned a lot.

The democratic system that we have here is really great, that we could speak our minds. There should be no animosity for anything. But I do have a problem. I sat here during the planning commission meeting. In that planning commission meeting, and the planners, the experts that are city-paid employees, each and every one are experts in their field of planning. And I cannot understand. You put commissioners out there to listen,

and they're supposed to feed back to you. The feedback that came from the planning commission said no to this project. And I don't understand. These are experts. These are city employees. We pay good money. They're expertise. Looking at you people here at the moment, I honestly don't know what expertise you come with because you put a commission, you pick them, but you will not listen the report is already out look if you lose this project you know what the

future of Santa Ana is there are some big projects coming on here there are no losers here there will be no losers the unions will have plenty of work coming down the road and people affordable housing will have a bigger chance with bigger revenue to get affordable housing but if this plan goes through I'll tell you I have no I just can't believe you would do it especially when

I can't but see that's the kind of stuff that we have to put up with but look what I'm talking about is for all of us you took an oath and you took that oath it was for the city of santa please conclude ral okay frank conclude yes you took an oath and said i will uphold the city mandates and whatever are there okay you said it you took the pledge are you going to turn against that and the residents, we put you in office. Okay. Thank you, Frank. That's all I have to say, and I am against it, and I have nothing against anybody else in here.

Go, Frank. Next speaker.

Is that Candy correct?

Hi, my name is Kristen Candy. My husband, Giles, is traveling for work and unable to attend tonight. I am a resident of Park Santiago, and we are opposed to this development project. I'd like to draw your attention to some data points and the impact that the density of this project will have on the community. According to current Santa Ana data, the current population density of Park Santiago is 2,600 people per square mile. Using the developer's proposed occupancy, which I actually believe to be understated, in order for people to pay the rents on this proposal, the occupancy will be much higher than proposed.

But using those proposed occupancy numbers, this development would increase the population density to over 100,000 people per square mile. That's equivalent to the population density of Manhattan. We are not opposed to development. We are not opposed to unions. But the size of this project is not the right one for our single-family residential neighborhood. Thank you for taking time to ensure that all sides are heard. thank you to your planning commission and the members that you put on that commission to listen to all sides and to come to the conclusion that rezoning the

space and this project is not the right one for this community and I urge you to please vote no on this project thank you thank you we now Jeff Black followed by

Robert P. Jeff not here, Robert not here, Sylvia Posada followed by Eric Mull.

Good evening my name is Sylvia Posada and I have been living in Par Santiago for five years. We moved to Par Santiago after leave ten years in Irvine and I really have concerns moving from Irvine to Santa Ana and I got a big surprise when I started living in Paris Santiago because I found a community that is not easy to find we found friends and they are acting like a family now so nobody understand what means to live in Paris Santiago if you are not living in Paris Santiago I have been listening for some people and they say they are talking

about the opportunity to live on the luxury apartments well they should be asking for places to work so they can afford to pay luxury apartments. I'm totally opposed of the project and I think we need office buildings that provide quality jobs for the people that are already living in Santa Ana and I think it's your responsibility to take care of our community. Thank you.

Thank you.

Eric Mull. Now I'm on numbers 31 through 40. So that's the next batch, 31 through 40. Is Eric Mull here?

Followed by Mike Ovalle.

Mr. Solaria, are you going to listen? Are you going to listen?

followed by Mike Avaya here go ahead go ahead just go ahead whatever you want guys

hi mayor councilman I'm Mike Avaya I'm the president of Park San Diego I've been the president for I believe five years now I've been a resident for about six years maybe seven now my wife and I moved in several years ago and we never thought we'd live in this neighborhood she She never thought she'd live in this neighborhood. Back in the 90s she grew up, I'm going to tell her story a little bit, but back in the 90s she grew up on 4th Street on the corner of French and 4th, what is now a hot dog place used to be her mom's shoe store. So we're no strangers to change, we're no strangers to progress, we're no strangers

to things happening out of our control. But she never dreamed she'd live in Santa Ana. And we worked and we fought really hard to make her dream come true. and we're working really hard to keep our dreams right now. You heard about the traffic, and this goes back to all the agreements that we've seen with the developer and all the things that we've heard. I got an email from Thomas Gordon a few weeks ago asking about whether I personally suggested that they take the land for the park, and I said, wow, that'd be pretty ingenious of me if I could come up with that idea on my own. So there's a lot of mistruths,

and there's a lot of statements going out there that are false. And it was only a little while out here on the front steps here where the developer caught me out front and he told me, what are you going to do? We have all the votes. There's nothing you can do. well I'm hoping that's false because it's just got to be false at this point because I just can't believe that that would be true but you know with all the other misinformation that I've been seeing with the videos, the agreements the the

things that they're going to give us which they said we've agreed to, Park Santiago's agreed to I've agreed to as the president of the neighborhood, I can tell you I've never agreed to any of this stuff. Most of their neighbors never agreed to this stuff. We sat there, we've listened, we've been insulted, we sit through these videos and we listen to these videos that insult us. And hopefully today you'll make the right decision. Thank you.

Thank you, Mike. Rory Kirk.

And after Rory, Daniel Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. I am a resident of Park San Diego. From the beginning of this development, it has been clouded with deception, lies, payoffs, questionable contributions to city officials, and promised rewards to those that would give it a thumbs up. Developer has paid students and others to come to these meetings claiming to support the project while reading from script or Wikipedia about housing shortage. using false names while the group laughs shows disrespect and lack of dignity to this council and these meetings these people are not impacted by this

development they do not vote for they did not vote for you most are not residents of the Santa of Santa Ana this council is our representation reflecting our community voice while we have been called selfish by proponents of low income housing and those who say they want to live in our neighborhood but can't afford it they don't realize what we've sacrificed so many of us to have a home in the Park Seonigo neighborhood. This is our American dream and we want to protect what is most of our largest investment in owning this home. In the past, the council has recognized

the value of its nostalgic neighborhoods and the treasures they have become while doing everything possible to preserve them. People are attracted to Santa Ana neighborhoods and the limited supply of these old historic homes where neighbors know their neighbors, neighbors look out for each other, and neighborhoods actively foster gatherings and events. We are neighbors that strive to preserve the past that has been erased from so many cities. The negative impact of this project to the neighborhood and Main Street corridor far outweigh all the money this developer has

thrown at the city, Discovery Center, Park San Diego, San Diego Park, and many others trying to buy the rezoning change. It's conservative to say that over 95 percent of Park San Diego residents are opposed to this project planted within our neighborhood borders. We are not against change. There's plenty of change going around us going on around us a few blocks from Park San Diego Change without destroying the past and preserving our neighborhood is responsible development. Thank you. Thank you

Daniel Ramirez followed by Susan Hyatt

Daniel Ramirez followed by Susan Hyatt Susan here come on down Susan followed by Jeffrey Foster

Hello, my name is Susan Hyatt. I'm a longtime resident of Park San Diego. I stand here today in solidarity with my neighbors and friends in Park San Diego who oppose the 2525 project. I do support keeping the zoning for the professional and administrative offices, which I think would be helpful to our neighborhood, and will bring more jobs to our neighborhood. Thank you.

Thank you, Susan.

Jeffrey Foster, followed by Kelly Medina.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. My name is Jeff Foster, and I have been a resident homeowner in Parks, Ontario, for over 30 years. I oppose the planned development at 2525 Main Street as it stands, and I believe that a five-story apartment complex with an eight-story parking structure will not only take away from the beauty of the neighborhood, but will add challenging amounts of traffic both on Main Street and additionally throughout the neighborhood. I expect there will also be quite a bit of street parking overflow from residents since there are less than two spaces allotted per unit for residents and their guests.

Having picketed against this development scope multiple times on weekday mornings, I have seen firsthand the levels of traffic already coming off the freeway and congesting Main Street. In morning rush hour traffic, making a left-hand turn off Edgewood onto Main Street is already backed up under the current conditions. We are challenged with only four ingress-egress options, which are heavily used by drivers from all over Santa Ana as a thoroughfare. I hope you take the recommendation of the Planning Commission and vote down the project as it stands.

In conclusion, I was not paid, fed, or in any way financially reimbursed for speaking tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. Kelly Medina followed by Peggy Stegel.

Stegel. Thank you very much.

Hello, Council and Mayor. I've been a resident of Santa Ana for 58 years. and growing up we would drive through this beautiful neighborhood and think, oh, someday I wish I could live there. And that dream was realized when I moved out of my parents' house I got to rent a garage apartment on Valencia and I vowed that someday I would hopefully get to buy a house in that neighborhood. And one day I did. When we were traveling, looking at houses for sale we were stopped by Mr. Herb Scott, who said, you have to buy here.

It's a great place to raise a family. Right now, Mr. Scott is on life support. But just a short time ago, I had a conversation with him about our neighborhood and the fact that we were trying to help convince you all to see things the way we see things. And he assured me, you know what? We've done it before. We've got a petition up. we kept him from building a bunch of apartments where guarantee Chevrolet is I'm sure you're going to prevail because our neighborhood sticks together like that right now I hope we can honor him because he's been

a resident of Santa Ana since probably the early 20s and has seen a lot of growth and told us a lot of good things that have happened and I want good things and good growth to happen for Santa Ana as well. But this is not the project. Not in this place. My mother used to work on that corner.

And we used to see the palm trees. When I went away to school, I'd take pictures of the palm trees back with me because they were so iconic. Right now that developer is planning to take out four of those palm trees like it's nothing. They're 100-year-old palm trees. Mr. Scott had pictures of an aerial view of them when they were just baby palm trees.

All those things are important, but most of all, I ask that you would not let this particular development go on. Let it be business or smaller home type of development. Thank you.

Thank you, Kelly. Peggy, followed by Steve. Stiegel, I believe it is. Stiegel.

Rhymes with bagel. Got it. Thank you. Hi, I'm Peggy I'm a 39 year resident in Park, San Diego. And I have here 286 letters that have been written to you guys from October 2017 to 2019 to the recent. I'm going to leave it for evidence here. And there are 74 have been just recent. So it shows you that things aren't slowing down in Park, San Diego. And it's representing 250 residents. We really oppose this project. We're not against progress. We just oppose this project because of what it does to our neighborhood.

Also, so I'm going to leave this with you.

I'm sure you're going to enjoy reading that tonight. Okay, and also, if this project was so good, if it was so good, why did the developers have to buy food, bring in busloads of people, and why do they need to hire people to come and talk about our neighborhood? They've never even seen our neighborhood. They don't understand why we live there. Why are they also going door-to-door on Spurgeon, which was testified in the Planning Commission meeting on Spurgeon? They're going door-to-door. We'll paint your house. We'll put a new roof on. We'll do your backyard if you'll vote yes.

And why are they dumping money into campaign accounts so they get your vote. In this day and age when we the people have the hardest time in the world believing in our government, I hope that you choose not to go with greed. This developer has used greed the whole way. Please, so you can sleep better at night, choose the correct and follow the Planning Commission's recommendation to say no. Thank you very much.

Steve Stagel rhymes with bagel. I'll remember that.

Got it. Thank you very much. Good job, Peggy.

Mayor, city council, thank you for giving us the opportunity to talk with you for a few minutes. This is the first time that I've spoken, but I've been observing for a year, and I've listened to all the neighbors do a great job. there's three words that come out really crystal clear to me and that's greed and that's corruption and that's dishonesty the developer purchased this property knowing it was not zoned for apartments and to put apartments 476 of them at the entrance to one of the crown jewel neighborhoods in san anna this this neighborhood is incredible but to put a put an apartment building right there

not the right location. The other thing I've been really disappointed with the developer is he's willing to pay anybody any amount of money to do anything to get this job, get this project accomplished. We've listened to the traffic. He said there wasn't going to be traffic problems, and yet they said there's going to be 2,700 trips with all the cars coming. We got so many apartments around us. We got people lined up for miles parking cars on their streets down Santa Clara, Grand, La Vida. There's so many cars. None of these apartments have enough

parking space. The Prisma building, the Prisma apartments, if they need apartments, luxury apartments, they're available right now. They can go in and move in. And I have a friend at the Prisma. And she said, Steve, there's two of us in an apartment, so we have two cars, because they allow two cars per. She said, but my neighbor has four adults, has four cars. And I said, well, where do the Extra Cars Park from the Prisma building. She said they park behind the Mother's Market and the Olive Garden, that parking lot, the little shopping center there. So now there's signs up

that says no Prisma parking is allowed in there. And we were there at 1.40 in the afternoon on Friday, not one open parking spot. And the reason is all the overflow from Prisma. Same thing's going to happen to our neighborhood. All the overflow. And by the way, there's parking right now at the at the Discovery Center that they're parking in the 2525 my recommendation is to leave it exactly the way it is parking for the Discovery Center I think that's a great great opportunity for that all those cars by the way are going to get moved to our neighborhood along with everybody else

and one other thing I wanted to say is for if this project goes through and I'm totally against this project but if it went through all these nice people that have said that they're for the project what's going to happen is poof they're all going to disappear. They're all going to go back to their homes in other cities. And we heard Buena Park, Fullerton, Los Angeles, Oceanside. Why are these people coming from all over Southern California? Can you please wrap up? Okay. My wrapping up.

If the project goes through and our friends and families come to our neighborhood and they see all these cars in our neighborhood ruined, they're going to say, what happened? And we're going to say greed, corruption,

dishonesty thank you thank you Susan McDonald bye bye Janelle Johnson hi I'm

Sue McDonald and my family's lived on French Street in Park Santiago since 1932 and I've been there all my 63 years and this developer acts like they understand our neighborhood and our friends with us and are going to give us all kinds of things to appease us and you know things like they're going to build us beautiful monuments we had those beautiful monuments in those palm trees which they say they're going to take take out a group of them and didn't even put it in the EIR so they're not really sensitive to anything about our neighborhood and then they go over to our park and I don't know if anybody's got

the idea you exchange land with the park for the entrance there to the park and give them other land we have no west entrance to the park at all anymore because they'll have complete control over that and there won't be any going to the log cabin there or any parties that they can park at so and that exit too they see figure that's the solution to get the cars out of there but the way the traffic's backed up they would be coming out of walkie way and there's no place to go so they're going to be blocking the intersection because you're talking you know lots of cars coming out

at that business hour when everybody's going to work so the park entrance is not a solution and i see this whole project they're trying to tweak it to make it fit in this area and it just doesn't fit and i don't see them ever being a good neighbor to us the way they're already treating us so it would be a real sore spot for the city to have to constantly be dealing with the neighbors going to permit parking or doing whatever to try to mitigate what's going to happen from this. But they are not our friends, and they are not good neighbors.

And I just really hope that you'll look at this and make the right decision for our neighborhood. And also, this is the museum district. Why are we not looking for a museum to go in that building? The building is salvageable, and it's not a bad building. And I know they're looking for a natural history museum, all the artifacts that are sitting stored. They're looking for a place there, and they're looking at the Great Park. we could be pursuing them to come into this. So I think there's other options for this. So please vote no, and let's go look at something else.

Thank you, Sue. Janelle Johnson, followed by Andrea Lee Harris.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. Here are 1,334 signatures gathered on change.org opposing this project.

I'm a long-term resident of Park Santiago, although not as long as some people that have spoken here. There are plenty of apartments that are currently available right now at a lower cost than the proposed cost of these units that are in the same area. So anybody that's looking, I'm sure they would be happy to see you. Homes are currently being discounted in Irvine. I read a report in the newspaper a couple weeks ago that there's a glut on the market right now of homes for sale. So that is also another option.

Employment due to this development or any other development is short-term and is not long-term, such as this building would be.

Developers build and then abandon, and then we are, the developers bought and then abandoned the building that's currently there. I've called the city police department and public works department several times because of water running and because of windows broken out and so I thought they were supposed to have a security firm so I hope that's not the security firm they're proposing to patrol Park Santiago or the finished project in short I would urge you to please vote no on this project. I hope you would not someday be driving down the street and looking at that saying, I had the chance

to vote that down, and that's on my conscience forever. Don't make that your legacy. Thank you for your time.

And after, you're Andrea, you'll be correct?

Yes. Andrea, how are you? It's so good. Good to see you.

Go ahead, Andrea.

Hello, Council. Hello, Miguel. I'm here to talk with you today about an amazing city. It's a city that I came to many years ago, that I invested my entire career into, and that I've grown to love. My home is here, my children are here, and the arts and culture that has come through so many people's investments is here. This city is a wondrous place, and this council, prior to you and you, have all known this. You all got involved in this city because you know of this incredible quality of this city.

When you walk through this city, you see people living full and rich lives. You are going out and you're developing properties that are going to support people, going to support their housing needs, going to support this growth. I really love the idea, and I want this to continue through the City Council when we think about development, of looking at the quality of life in the city. When you go to downtown, you see Grand Central Arts Center, where we invested and redeveloped a beautiful area for the public to learn and to grow. you see the Bowers Museum, you see the wooden floor, you come up to the Discovery Science Center,

you see all the children coming and going and learning in that space, and then you see this lot of land right across from it, which the Discovery Science Center had bid to purchase to continue an educational space. This area is zoned for it to be a space for business, for people to learn in, for people to get employment in. I really love the idea of putting a museum on the edge of that park and to continue our educational outreach to all people. Why turn it into just some apartments when you can turn it into a space for everybody and expand on what we already have?

I live in that community, but I also live in this whole city, and I love it here. And I hope that you will understand that we want to use that area for something for everyone, not just for apartments. and I appreciate you listening to me. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Andrea.

And thank you, Andrea, for all your years of service to the community. Cal State Fullerton just didn't mention one. Nellie Rojas.

Thank you. Good evening, Major and Council members. My name is Nellie Rojas, and I live in the community. I live in Park Santiago, and I oppose this project. The reason why I do that is because this project that the developer is planning will be over twice the density of any other project in Santa Ana, and we do not need this dense project in our community. Preserving and improving our existing neighborhood is not on this company's agenda. The developer's main objective is to maximize their profit regardless of what seems right.

I cannot believe that this developer is using social media to manipulate people that are unaware of the circumstances into signing a petition with a pre-designed template in which this company is asking the public to help them get this project passed. The developer is promising money for after-school programs, parks, and libraries. The company is even offering money for abortable housing if the project passes on social media. Please do not let money get away with the building of this massive project. In regards to the young adults and the rest of the people that came to speak

last time, I just want to say to repeat again what has been said in the past, the developer is not going to create dorms nor affordable housing for the college students in this area. This company is building luxury apartments and the company just wants to use you to pass this project. Even the Santa Ana School district on the report is saying that they will not be able to accommodate all the students that will be generated with this massive project their suggestions say that additional capacity might be needed and that this and other school districts and the additional funding is going necessary the district estimates

that this project will generate about 247 new students 113 being elementary school going into Hoover Elementary School so about 113 new vehicles will go to the neighborhood in the morning and in the afternoon. The district is also saying that the fees from the developer are not gonna be enough, and that the district required mitigation measures for if this passes. This massive construction will impact our community. Please do not let money get away with building this dense project. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Deborah Curran.

Followed by Edwin Garrillo.

Good evening, Mayor and Honorable Council Members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'll keep this brief to allow as many of my neighbors to speak as possible. My name is Deborah Curran, and I'm here to represent the Park Santiago neighborhood. I've been a homeowner there since 1997. I ask that you vote against rezoning 2525 Main for the Addington development. It's the wrong type of project for this parcel of land for a myriad of reasons that you've already heard. We can do better. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Edwin. Followed by Doug McLean.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. It's my first time here. My name is Edwin Garrido. I'm a combat veteran and I am a long-time resident of Park Santiago. I'd just like to go on the record that I oppose this project, as many as my other servicemen and veterans in my neighborhood do as well. And I would hope that you guys protect and preserve the legacy of our neighborhood the same way that we've protected and preserved our country as well. Thank you. Thank you, Edwin.

Doug, followed by Candace Vance.

Good evening. My name is Douglas McLeath. I live on French Street in Park, Santiago. I've lived there for 15 years, and I oppose this project. I moved to Park, Santiago. I picked the neighborhood before I picked the house because of the special place that it is. And this evening I'd just like to point out a couple of things on the proposed development agreement.

It says that it provides significant benefits to the neighborhood, and it says that it is, quote, a quality development in accordance with the goals and the policies set forth in the general plan. This is not true. There are a number of policies in the general plan that this proposed construction does not satisfy. Just a couple of the examples would be land use development goal 5.5 regarding compatibility and urban design element goal number one for the promotion of place and quality environment. Actually, what this development will do is put a big monstrosity right in the middle of our neighborhood.

At section 4.2.1, it makes this statement. The owner has met with the residents of Park Santiago and has agreed to provide the following amenities. This is misleading. There's been no negotiation with the residents, and we didn't agree to the amenities to satisfy our concerns. Most of the amenities are just for show. For example, the allowance of using their facilities and the security patrol. There's no details, and it all goes to the discretion of the owner, and from a contractual standpoint, these things are unenforceable.

All of the amenities are without substance. But I think my favorite one is where the owner has agreed to provide money to offset costs of Park Santiago to be recognized as a historic district. So what they plan on doing is providing $150,000 to the city to help us preserve the historic nature of the neighborhood after they've destroyed it.

The residents of Park Santiago are not against development, but the proposed development will harm not only Park Santiago, but Santa Ana as a whole.

Doug, if you could please wrap up.

I think the council should preserve the historic elements of Santa Ana, and we ask you to vote no.

Thank you.

Candice, followed by Marge Tia Khan, I believe.

Hi, my name is Candice Vance, and I'm a nine-year resident of Park Santiago.

I'm against the 2525 Main Street project for a myriad of reasons like the scale, the density, the congestion, the impact on the quality of life of such a special neighborhood as Park Santiago.

But the biggest thing I'm against is the concept of spot zoning. Spot zoning is unfavorable as it smacks of favoritism. It does nothing. This project does nothing to enhance or improve the neighborhood, which is the spirit and the letter of spot zoning. The scale of this development is not only incompatible with the neighborhood, it is incompatible with the corner of Edgewood and Main. this is not 17th and Harbor.

The other issue that I find is the traffic study. In the EIR that was presented by, I apologize, I don't know the gentleman's name, at the last meeting, he specifically stated that it didn't include the main place development for the traffic study, nor did it include the town and country or memory lane apartments. that's huge 1900 is huge the combination of those two is three times the amount of units as in this particular development the scale is absolutely out of sight for what the neighborhood is as many of the other residents here have stated

I urge you to support your planning commission that you appointed who voted 2-1 against this project and vote against

this development. Thank you. We will proceed with Mary Tinkum and that'll be Paul M.A.G. after.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. Thank you for letting us come and speak and tell you how we feel about this project. My name is Mary Tinkum and I've lived in Park Santiago for over 20 years. I feel very lucky to have found the spot just by accident, driving through it on my way to taking my son to school, looking for a home where I was going to raise my son as a single mother. It's a beautiful neighborhood. As you can see, we're very passionate about it, about being citizens and residents of Santa Ana.

I'm opposing of course the 2525 North Main Street development for all the reasons that have been very eloquently laid out this evening. It's overbuilt. It's too dense for our neighborhood. It's a behemoth monster development. It's budding up next to a historically sensitive neighborhood that is beautiful and quaint.

I just feel as our city representatives please support the opinions of the neighbors of Santa Ana, the residents of Santa Ana. Do the right thing. Everybody's saying the same thing. This developer is greedy. He's pushy. He wants what he wants and he's buying his way in without even any concern about the residents of Park Santiago. I've been to several of the other meetings where they were supposed to be explaining to us all the benefits of this development.

And it was real and they didn't address any of the issues that we brought forward about parking, about the density of the building, about the intersection out of Edgewood, that corridor right there of Main Street. and I just feel like we're just it's being shoved on us and none of us we don't fuck we have any recourse except to come to you and and ask you to really give a lot of thought to this development and what is good for the residents of Santa Ana thank you

Paul, you're next. By the way, the clerk just handed me all these additional speakers. So I thought we were doing pretty good because I thought we were down to this. But now we're down to this. So keep speaking and we'll keep going here.

Hi, my name is Paul Mogg. The facts are clear that this planned development should have been rejected from the start. Of cities over five square miles in Orange County, Santa Ana already is the most densely populated. The proposed project would be 12 times as densely populated as its adjacent neighborhood. Santa Ana has clearly already more than paid their dues. It's not our responsibility to house the nation. What we have here tonight is the closing day of a trial. I call it a trial because a verdict will be rendered at the end.

What most people might not know is that whether or not this proposed development is good or bad is not what is on trial. What is on trial is the courage and integrity of each one of you sitting on the city council to come to the right decision. basically the decision for those that actually own property in san anna and have called it their home the actual residence by the numbers those in our neighborhood are weak who have only to stand on the many sacrifices and risks they've made over the years to become homeowners in san anna and who relied upon a city plan they thought could be trusted in contrast you have the

overwhelming mob by their numbers who really have no real skin in the game. They have no huge sunken investment in Santa Ana. Please, I beg of you, don't be swayed by the mob or by anything which might draw your integrity into question. Take the high and perhaps the more difficult road and deny this

development. Thank you. William Lee, following Marilyn Fuller,

George Atala

Come on down, are you George? Come on down Elizabeth Hansberg You'd be next And then Patricia Coleman would be after Elizabeth, please go ahead

Good evening Council, thank you for having the patience to take public comment tonight My name is George Atala and I represent an extremely large population of young, educated and employed millennial apartment dwellers who are facing a shortage of both rental and ownership opportunities in Orange County. We as a demographic are being and will be forced out of this county in seek of not only affordable housing, but also a range of housing products, whether that be luxury apartments or market-rate condos. I understand that the affordability of this project is questionable to millennials.

I don't consider this to be a dorm for college students, but it's definitely questionable with its affordability. But, and I also understand that traffic is a major concern. However, basic economics tells us that as you supply the overwhelming demand, you decrease the average pricing overall. Each housing project approved throughout Santa Ana and Orange County will intermittently help the housing cost crisis that we have. Traffic and parking will never be solved by turning away housing developments. That only displaces traffic to other areas in Orange County.

If it's not going to be in your neighborhood, it's going to be on the freeway somewhere else. Mass transit solves traffic. Those who are opposing individual projects are fighting the wrong fight. I'm not being paid to say this. Probably scared to walk to my car. But please don't scare away future housing developers from this city and please approve this project. Thank you.

Elizabeth?

Yes, I'm Elizabeth Hansberg and I represent the non-profit organization People for Housing Orange County. someone asked why we're here and we're here because we believe in the need to address California's ongoing pervasive housing shortage the people that you're hearing from tonight are people that already have housing but what about the people that will come after them the Millennials that need housing and are we really going to have an argument about the preservation of 100 year old palm trees versus housing for our workforce. Let's talk about what this project actually is.

It's not in the neighborhood. It's on a major thoroughfare that is served by transit. It's halfway in between the employment center at the hospital complex and downtown Santa Ana, both of which have good paying jobs. There is a market for this housing here. Secondly, to talk to hear from the NIMBYs, you're hearing from people that already have housing and they're vilifying apartment buildings and renters as temporary. Why are the people that have lived here the longest entitled to the housing and not the newcomers? And who will speak for the people that

will come after these folks? Single family zones cannot be so sacrosanct that apartments are not even allowed to border them again for the sake of 100 year old palm trees if living in Park Santiago is a privilege why should that privilege not be extended to other people maintaining exclusivity of single-family zoning to the exclusion of all else just perpetuates the unaffordability and then lastly impact fees and affordable housing contributions to your city are not political payoffs their standard procedure for any development and a reflection of the city's inclusionary zoning ordinance. Lastly, in a state of the state

address, Newsom cited other factors beyond just city planning that have limited our ability to provide housing. He's talking about nimbyism. He says, I'm not going to preside over neglect and denial. These cities need to summon the political courage to build housing. Thank

you. Thank you. David Pocket. Patricia Coleman. Is Patricia here? And then go ahead, Dave, and then Patricia, you're next.

Thank you. My name's Dave Pocket. I've lived in Park San Diego for 20 years. I've raised a family there. I've raised three millennials who cannot live here. I oppose this project. I oppose the rezoning. I have been working for 40 years in the residential architecture field, and I've developed, I'm not a developer, but I've designed homes from here to the other side of the state, and I've worked with responsible developers, large home developers, that have never, in those 40 years, bought a piece of property that wasn't zoned for what they're gonna build,

and hope and pray and wish that the city is gonna change the city planning, the city zoning, and put something that's super high density in one of the, clearly the lowest density. I understand we need homes. I've designed homes my whole life. I'm not against it. But again, never have I been in with a project where the developers asked the city to change all the rules on top of taking up part of a park, possibly. and yes I think it's important to preserve 100 year old trees those trees are taken up about a foot and a half of dimension they're not it's unbelievable to me

that again I've never been in any city from here to across the nation where they said hey the zoning for this is the lowest density and right over the fence we're going to put the highest density I think it's your responsibility to control that and control housing and have housing, but I don't think this is the right project for this area. Thank you.

Esther Lopez.

Followed by Francisco Gomez.

Good evening and blessings to everybody. I was born in Santa Ana, and I have a long history of seeing Santa Ana. 40,000 people to 400,000. I love my city, and I've lived in many neighborhoods, and when we finally, my husband and I, decided to make our residence at Park Santiago, it's because it's a little bit of every part of Santa Ana. And not only that, I want you all to know some of the people I grew up with, Dr. Emmett Raitt, he was at our house and brought me to life. There's Hector Godinus, my mailman.

And then there's Dunlap, Sky Dunlap from Santa Ana College. There are many, many people who have influenced me. Recently, it was Alan Dobie, Parks and Recreation, highly respected for what he believed in the people, and Santa Ana, and our parks. I'm here to say and speak on behalf of Santa Ana that Park Santiago is a little bit of everything. No, yes, you know what, I was not a millennium, but I was that age at one time. And if you're all crying about how to get ahead, life is a journey. I was orphaned.

My mother died when I was 10. My father, when I was 12, he died of tuberculosis. I spent three years in the tubercular sanitarium. And then I went to senior year to Santa Ana High School. Then I went to Santa Ana College, then I got sick another year. And after that I said, enough of this, and I went forward. My father shined shoes and affordable housing at the time. He earned $30 a week, and the housing was $30 a month. Times, the residents have gone up and they have gone down. You know, you're worried about finding a home. When we bought our home it doubled in six months from the time the previous owner

So things do go up things do go down you have to have hope you have to have courage And you have to go forward and have faith in God that things will happen But go forward for everybody not just for yourself. I do a lot of volunteer work with the homeless with the kids in Phoenix house With you know master gardener. We were gonna we talked to the thank you Esther everybody for the parks

So please, all of Santa Ana. Patricia Coleman, did you speak yet? Come on down, please.

Hi, I'm Patricia Coleman, and I've been a resident of Park San Diego for 30 years.

So we have this piece of property on the corner of Edgewood and Main, and it's perfect for high-density housing, not, except for a few details. And the details are important. One, the residents were not included in planning a project that adds 30% to the population or to the housing. It's not zoned for high density housing. It's in a liquefaction zone and there still isn't a hazard report available to the public. It's supposed to be done before you approve it. It's adjacent to single family homes on its two longest sides. Its shortest side is on Main Street.

It has limited access in an area of constricted traffic flow. Only one access for 900 cars to enter and exit. The mark has three. Two plus guest park, a separate one for guest parking. And the mark has roads that go around three sides of the property plus an alley almost going all the way around. The EIR addressed traffic flow, but it cannot address everything. there's another element of traffic management and that is access management that controls the accidents that might happen when you have U-turns at a very dangerous intersection already it's a little demolition derby

sometimes with people forgetting and coming off the freeway and running through the red light you're being asked to vote for a secondary access that is still undefined Is it in? Is it out? The developer does not own the land he's proposing to use. The city does not have unrestricted, unfettered ability to transfer the use of that land. but you're being asked to vote on it without that being settled yet and that secondary access is being proposed to be a

one for one land swap that's a gift to the developer that's access on main street for land of equal size interior to the lot that's a gift and then lastly there's no emergency road on the northern side of that project at all please wrap okay that the northern side is 580 feet long a hose for a fire truck is 125 feet that's what I talked to Selena this afternoon and she said that's the proposal to run a hose from Maine a hose from the back of the project 125 plus 125 is not 580 thank you thank you Francisco Gomez

Followed by David Slayton, Carol Slayton, Joe Lester.

I'm now in the 60s, by the way, 60 to 70.

That's a quorum. Keep going.

Hi, my name is Joe Lester. Good evening. I live in Park Santiago. and they oppose this project. This land is on a liquefaction zone because it's very close to Santiago Creek. The park that they keep talking about is the Santiago Creek. If they borrow land from it, that's where the water comes from to fill the Santa Ana River. That's not appropriate. Also, these several parcels are all within 500 feet of the freeway. The AQMD recommends that no residences be built there.

It's zoned for commercial miscellaneous, and that's what should be there. Nobody should live that close to that much dirt in the air.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Gary Thomas.

By the way, how would people feel about one minute instead of two minutes?

I knew it would be unpopular, but I just wanted to voice it.

We're at 63. This will get us to 200. Go ahead, Gary.

Go ahead. Do I have three minutes or two? Two. I have two. I was proposing to go to one, and they want to hear you speak.

You're a very popular guy. Keep going. All righty. Most of you folks know that my family's been in Santa Ana 100 years. My family has been in pre-California 1848, 170 years. Anyway, council members, I'm going to be addressing you as council members and as neighbors. As neighbors, you know, or as council members, you voted Santa Ana to be a sanctuary city, helping people that are undocumented receive proper representation.

Your job as council members are to represent us as neighbors because you are neighbors elected by us as neighbors to ensure our quality of life and our interests are best looked after. You also support the police department. You need to support the planning department as equally as well. Santa Ana is unique because it is the corridor for the county. We have the 55 freeway and the 5 freeway and 1st Street. We have the 57, 22, and the 5, and then we have the 22 and the 55.

They're all choke points. And at those choke points, the people that drive, it's like water. They're looking for the path of least resistance. They're going to be traveling through Santa Ana to get to wherever they're going. But the people that live in the heart of Santa Ana, working class people, are leaving the city to go to work. I sent you a picture of the odometer on my truck. 477,000 miles a year ago I was driving to the Paula Indian Reservation candidating for a job I drove an hour and a half I went to LAX for work it's just the price you pay to be a construction worker if you don't like it you know, get out of the fire

and the longest corridor we have in Santa Ana begins at Ball Road Main Street, runs all the way to John Wayne Airport so if you need to get to the airport quick jump off at Balg, go down the 56th freeway, a.k.a. Main Street. You know, we do not need the city destroyed and our neighborhoods destroyed. You know, keep and build Santa Ana pride. And I'm going to end with a quote from antiquity that Abraham Lincoln also used in the Gettysburg Dress. It says, a house divided against itself cannot stand.

a house that is divided against its house cannot stand thank you mr. mayor thank you rada carpenter followed by Lynn mr. mayor may have just one second I have brought some booklets for you folks it talks about tyranny the urgent crowding out the important things because of

the urgent things here's a couple thank you rada carpenter followed by Lynn wicki Weickle and then Steven Gargone. Is Rada Carpenter here? Lynn here? Come on down.

It's Weickle. We'll go with the reference. We'll go with it. You got it. Let's start the clock. I wrote it so I can be quick. Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Lynn Swickle. I'm a 24-plus year resident of Park San Diego, single mother of three, school teacher in Santa Ana and a member of a union. I'm against this project for a plethora of regions that by no means is this an inclusive list. Quality of life. It's a negative impact on the neighborhood is real. Thousands of additional car trips daily, parking congestion and density. This property is

zoned commercial for a reason. Our leaders believe we need a balance of industry and housing and for now, according to the developer's data, more than 70% of residents of Santa Ana work outside of Santa Ana. We don't need high density, we need jobs. Main Place Mall is a half mile to the northwest. That site will be adding 1900 residential and 400 hotel with over 3,700 units built or planned within the immediate area with our not, not filled to capacity. We need a place to work. We don't need more high density housing. Increased traffic. The planning commission meeting, a civil engineer whose job is to speak to

traffic, was unable to answer a very simple question regarding the increased traffic due to the addition of 3,000 car trips each day. This is not including the additional traffic from Main Place project. They skewed the numbers over a 24-hour period, not the times that those cars would be on the road. People keep talking about low-income housing. This is not low-income housing. I have three Millennials. They'll work their way up to housing that they can afford. Right now they are all renters or one lives with me. And most commercial projects that would be built on this

site would contribute to a low-income housing. Perks for Santiago? Perks that would more than likely disappear quickly. The current security at the property is woefully inefficient and history usually dictates future behavior. Any new commercial development would more than likely add funds for parks and beautification as well. Trying to bribe Park Santiago residents with amenities is a cheap trick. Amenities that will most likely come with a cost and an expiration date. City employees who presented. They presented as an arm of the developer. They're here to represent Santa Ana. I get that they recommended it but when they say

we and they turn to the developer for help, that really leaves a bad taste in my mouth. A union leader taking role of the workers and showing up and providing dinner. The only reason these young people are here is for compensation. I don't blind the young people. They're doing what they've been asked to do, but they can't afford these. There'll be three to four roommates in each one of these and that shoots the 1.8 cars per unit all the heck. Why the attack ads? Okay, sorry. I'm imploring to you to follow the Planning Commission's recommendation the planning commission you appoint and vote no on resuming rezoning and no for this

project all right they've done your homework steven followed by david roach i believe it is mr mayor council members my name is steve gorgoni i live at 25 56 north valencia in the beautiful community of park santiago i want to thank you for this opportunity and thank you for your time I really, really do appreciate this. I'm here to speak against the 2525 Main Street Project. I want to make myself perfectly clear, though. I'm not against developments. I'm, in fact, very much for the development of Santa Ana, and I've been very much excited to see the progress the city has made over the past years,

and it's continuing to make. I'm a teacher at Santa Ana High School, and I'm very concerned with my students. I'm very concerned with the economic impacts that we're seeing in the area. This, however, is not the solution. I do want more students enrolling. I do want a better funded school system. This is not the way to fund our school system, though, by looking to these developers to bring money into our system. It's going to bite us in the back. This is not a good way to do it. There's going to be other issues, though. In short, though, I do want to tell you I'm against this project.

This is the irresponsible project in front of us. It's too close to our neighborhood. We already have high traffic areas. there's too many issues where more traffic is going to overload a problem that is already out of control. Parking is going to be a problem. Anybody that says otherwise is kidding themselves. They're going to be parking all throughout the neighborhood. There's going to be nowhere for anybody in the neighborhood to park. We see it around the high school late at night. All these apartment buildings around where we work. People come in and find places to park. It's going to be a problem. Let me

conclude, though, by saying my last point. This is irresponsible, because if you allow this rezoning to happen, we have no way to ensure that what you approve here is going to be what we actually get. And that's where I'm scared. This is why I'm concerned. This is why I'm here. This is not a good decision. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, David. Followed by Joe Vickers. David Roach. Joe Vickers. Andy

Weber. Good evening. My name is Joe Vickers. I am a resident of Park Santiago, and I just wanted to go on record tonight saying that I am against this project. The rezoning of the 2525 main place is, it's just ridiculous. I don't know. When me and my wife moved to the neighborhood, when you check the area we looked at the zoning and the zoning for this particular location is not zoned for a super high density apartment complex and I am against the project thanks

thank you Joe Andy five followed by Aaron Oliver

Stephen Lamott

Come on down, Erin. If other folks don't come down and you heard your name, just start walking.

Go ahead. Good evening, Honorable Mayor and Councilmembers. My name is Erin Oliver and I am a resident of Park Santiago. You've heard a lot of millennial voices in favor of this project. I'm also a millennial and like my contemporaries, I am in favor of responsible affordable housing. This project is neither responsible nor affordable. I am vehemently opposed to this project for all the reasons you've heard from my neighbors and other responsibly minded citizens. I implore you to vote in accordance with the Planning Commission's recommendation not to approve this development. Thank you for your time.

Aaron, thank you for keeping it short. We ought to have a contest to see who the quick a speaker is and we'll give you a prize at the end of the night.

Steve Lamont, go ahead, sir, and then Christopher Reeves, I guess again. Go ahead. Thank you, Mayor, City Council members. My name is Steve Lamont. I'm the Executive Officer for the Building Industry Association of Orange County. We are here to support this project tonight by way of background. BIA is a non-profit trade association representing over 1,100 member companies, as well as over 100,000 individuals within the building industry. I do have some statistics here, if you'll bear with me, as some of these stats have been said. Orange County is short 7,000 homes per year. That number climbs to 100,000 at the state level.

The median home price now is climbing up to $800,000, and rent is climbing to upwards of $2,000 per month. There was only 21 housing units built for every 100 new California residents between 2005 and 2015. And Santa Ana, actually, Chapter 2 of your housing element states that from 1990 to 2007, 500 units were built even though the population of Santa Ana climbed by 60,000. And according to the Concord Group, 75% of population increase is actually from within. So when we build these housing units and we put them here in Orange County, we're actually building for our family members and for our children.

So there are numerous reasons of these issues that I've stated, but the main issue is just simply supply and demand. We, you know, and it's been said several times as well that this is not affordable housing But this is actually going to put money into an affordable housing account that the city gets to control Which then you guys get to use efficiently Versus putting these units on site And so with that, I do want to say that we support this project And thank you for allowing me to speak tonight Thank you

Thanks to you, Christopher

Christopher

Not here

followed by Heather Seidel. Heather Seidel, Matt Dean. Heather come on down. Matt Dean if you're here or don't start heading forward and then Susan Chaseman.

Good evening, Councilmembers. My name is Heather Seidel. I was born and raised in Santa Ana, born here at Chalk, went to Santiago Elementary, Willard Junior High, and Santa Ana High. When my children, when my husband and I decided to build our home, or not build our home, but come back and build a family, we chose Santa Ana. We chose Park Santiago. We chose to be part of a community. I ask you to preserve that community, the neighborhood community, rich in historical value, rich in family values and dynamic in diversity. I have the fondest childhood memories of growing up on the tree-lined streets.

I want that for my children. I want my children's children to have that. conserving these neighborhoods is is an imperative part of the community and these neighborhoods are the ones that invest back into Santa Ana so I ask again for you to please vote against 2525 project this project and keep these unique neighborhoods so we can invest back in to your thank you Heather and

And by the way, you ended and it was still green. You're part of the green club.

Go ahead, Matt, and then Susan Chaseman. Council members, my name is Matt Doan, and I have worked in Santa Ana for 19 years, and I've lived in Park San Diego for the last 16 years, and it's my privilege to live in this city. I'm honored to live in this city. I love this city that I get to live in with you. There's a couple points I want to make up. make up. One is that I don't see the developer giving us any evidence of any other project that is this big next to a residential neighborhood like ours. In fact, I want to challenge the developers, you can hear me right now, show us one property or project that goes up into a

neighborhood like this in all of Orange County. I haven't yet to see him prove that this has happened before. So that's one point right there. Secondly, the developer has a great voice. They have an amazing public relations team. They have a great traffic engineer that we've got to hear from many times throughout the presentations of this project. We as Parkstown Eagle residents, we don't have a voice. You are our voice and we're trusting in you to be our voice here tonight, particularly Council Member Jose Solerio. I voted for you. I respect you. I believe that you're an

intelligent man. It's one of the reasons I voted for you. You have experience both at a state level and here in our city. And I voted for you when I stepped in that booth with all confidence that you would represent me and my neighbors on a night like tonight. So please do the right thing tonight.

Thank you, Susan.

Paul Lujan.

Followed by Dolores Aguilar.

Thank you. My name is Paul Lujan, and I too love Santa Ana. I was born and raised in Santa Ana, and now live in Park Santiago for six years. People in Santa Ana are the greatest. No matter what we believe in, where we work, what school we go to, angels or Dodgers, we are glad to call Santa Ana our home. I come to today to tell the city government that the latest polls are saying 500 apartments will not be built

on Main Street and 500 more cars will not come into our neighborhood. Oops, I'm sorry, I just watch a lot of CNN news. But seriously, there is a written history in Santa Ana.

35 years ago, a young man fought the city hall for his father's business that he built with his own hands. And it was probably right here in the same chambers that he fought the city of Santa Ana.

You will not take my father's building, he said. And the city listened. So yes, 500 apartments will not be built here. And the traffic will not be there. Because this is the history of Santa Ana. So please people, if you don't know what happened in this part of history, go to First and Main at this big shopping center and see a tiny car shop, very tiny car shop.

It reminds me of New York where a little two-story building is surrounded by a skyscraper.

and if you don't know this young man well he's not young anymore he's just as i'm gonna have to cut you off

ask around the chambers and you'll know but now it is red now it really is red Please, City of Santa Ana, listen to Park Santiago, and you will know. Make Park Santiago safe for our children.

Thank you, Paul Dolores. Aguilar, followed by Lori Oliver.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council members. Thank you for letting me, allowing me to speak tonight. My name is Dolores Aguilar, and I live in the northeast part of Park Santiago. I've been there for six years. Looked all around Santa Ana and found this gem. what I call a gem. I grew up in LA County so you don't find neighborhoods quite like this in LA County that are very historic in value, very much a community type. I know neighbors that

are six blocks away which back home I didn't really know neighbors all that well. I do have a story to tell you though so please bear with me when I was 16 and first driving I was fortunate enough to have this small four-door red hatchback Chevy Chevette if you know the model of that car you know it's not very big anyway one day my friends and I all agreed to go to McDonald's for lunch which wasn't too far away so we piled into the car and off we went as soon as we left the school parking lot a police officer pulled me over he said do you know I

pulled you over I said hmm probably because I have too many people in the car he said yes you can't put people where there's no seats what I didn't say is that at the beginning of the story was that we managed to fit nine people into the car. A car that was meant for five. The police officer was nice enough to let me off with the warning, and he said, only five are allowed in the car. If you can guarantee me that you won't do that again, I'll let you off this time without a ticket. I, of course, agreed, and he left.

The moral to this story, which is true, it actually happened to me, and I've never done it again. You can't squeeze an oversized building into a small area. Put a building there that makes sense. That's all we're asking for. Listen to your planning commission, and we'll appreciate it so much. Thank you.

Thank you. Lori Oliver, followed by Denise Shodorn, I believe.

Good evening. My name's Lori Oliver. I've grown up in Park Santiago and still live there. I want to speak in opposition of the proposed building. My street would be highly impacted by parking, I have no doubt. I also would like to say that currently you can't make a left turn onto Main Street at rush hour traffic. and this will only make the problem worse. Also, many who are in favor of the project have talked about progress,

and I don't believe that any of us are opposed to progress, but it needs to be responsible progress. And some things are worth preserving, which I believe the 100-year-old palm trees on Edgewood that would be taken out to put in a driveway are worth preserving. Thank you.

Thank you.

Denise, C-H-A-U-D-O-R-N, I believe, lives on Larchmont. Tracy Mutz, Sylvia Livingston, Drew Colquitt,

art pedrosa art i know you're here you've been there in the front of the line

good evening mr mayor my friends in the council city staff members of the public i'm going to try to be in the green club let's see if i can make it as you know i live right down the street from this project and for that reason i was opposed to it when i first heard about it didn't make sense to me but then the EIR came out and I read it and that's the document that you would read to find out if a project is too big or is too dense or doesn't have enough parking that's not in this EIR it's a good project according to that ER with some tweaks which a developer has

offered and made and our own city planning agency has also seconded this project

hey guys I'm at the mic not you settle down

the reality is you're voting tonight not just for today but for tomorrow we need the funding that this project will provide i'm not all that concerned about the traffic and whatnot because trends are changing i know i made several millennials finally figured out what was causing them the reality is there's a trend a trend now in business to work from home even my company I never thought this would happen it allows me to work from home now so I think the traffic concerns are on really untrue and there's ample parking provided in this project again according to the ER that I wonder folks

even read it's a good project any city would be happy to welcome this project and I urge you to consider that I think a yes vote is the fiscally prudent thing to do thank you for your time have a good night

Thank you Art. Alright. Let's keep it down. Let's keep it down. Michelle Ovalle followed by Edmond Graces.

Hi, good evening. My name is Michelle Ovalle. I'm a resident of Park Santiago. And I live on 25 Valencia. I'm the secretary of the Neighborhood Association. My husband spoke earlier. It's Michael Ovalle. And I'm against the development at 2525. The biggest thing is the bigger picture. So I grew up in Orange County. I grew up in Westminster. And my family had a shoe store on 4th Street. And that was about 25 years ago.

And they worked really hard. You know, I lived in a crowded house. I lived with two other families. and as a millennial I understand that it's you know that you have to work really hard and I've I've done the best I could and I saw Santa Ana I saw Park Santiago when I was young and I knew that I probably would never live in a neighborhood like that and I continue to work hard I continued to study, but I always knew that Santa Ana should be preserved. That shoe store is now gone.

It's a fancy hot dog place, and that's okay. That's fine. Things have to move on.

And I want things to look like that. I like 4th Street. I like the development. I think it looks great. but I want to keep Santa Ana beautiful and we have a home, we're working really hard I just came from work, I work 60 hours a week and I do the best I can to keep things beautiful I try to drive safely, walk my dog and I want more

different nationalities to move there too

it's a great place and it's changing, but we want to keep the quality. No matter what type of nationality is there,

quality is what matters. So please remember that and try to keep that alive. Thank you.

Thank you, Edmund. Graces.

Followed by Eric Skanderet.

come on down and then after uh eric anna zoo zhu uh good evening mayor uh mayor pro tem and

council members i'm a resident of the morrison park neighborhood association neighborhood and i have uh talked with many many people and i've come to the conclusion that this is a project that is way, way too large for the site. I would just like to leave you with this one thought. Before you vote tonight, if you could just take a mental picture of your homes where you live, and then imagine that you have something like this coming within a few feet of your property,

I think you'll make the right decision. I urge you to defeat this project

Anna followed by Daniel Smith

Good evening, mr. Mayor and council My name is Anna drew. I have been a resident in Park Santiago since 2011 and I do not support the Addicton development. I'm also here to dispel the myth that all residents who oppose this project are Caucasian and retired. I am a first-generation Chinese-American immigrant, and I'm also a millennial. Yes, I eat lots of avocado toast, and I have received a few participation trophies in my formative years.

Millennials want what everyone else wants. We want a safe neighborhood to raise families and a patch of grass in the backyard for our dogs. Here at Park Santiago, we have a tight-knit community. Our quality of life is not for sale for the benefit of developers. I'm concerned that during a downturn economic cycle, mismanagement and high vacancy rate of a 480 unit apartment complex could contribute significantly to the decay of our community and affecting the property value of our homes.

We have already seen over the past year how the developers are taking care of the current building site, and they have allowed the place to fall into complete disrepair with very little care and respect for our community. They have proven to us that their presence in our community is a mistake. Please do not allow a bigger mistake to happen by approving this project. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Daniel Smith, followed by Harris Feldman.

I too live in Park Santiago. I'll keep it short. I think you should defend this neighborhood. People try to whittle away at it. Caltrans expanded the Five. They wanted to put an off-ramp on Bush Street. People fought against it. You should fight against this development. There needs to be a buffer zone between the residence and the business corridor.

Keep the zoning the way it is now.

Vote no. And defend Park San Diego.

Thank you. You're another green light person, by the way. Two now. And I think you're winning so far, Daniel. Here's Feldman.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council people. I'll make this short, and I'm going to not go over what everybody else has gone over. Here's my fear. If you guys approve this change of zoning, what's going to prevent other developers coming into Main Street, Broadway, where there are two-story buildings, and all of a sudden you've got Wilshire Boulevard? I don't want that. And I am against this project. Thank you.

Thank you. Joey Jones, followed by Joshua Sherman. Come on down.

Hi, my name is Joey Jones, and I'll keep this brief for you. I live on Santa Clara Avenue in Park Santiago with my wife and our four small children. We are millennials who work very hard to be able to buy our house with our own money in Park Santiago, and we're part of a growing population of young families who are moving into Park San Diego. We chose to plan our routes here in Park San Diego because it's a neighborhood that offers a beautiful and historic feel that, frankly, I couldn't find anywhere else in Orange County. I'm against this project for several reasons.

First and foremost, and I think the discussion should probably end here, is that the general plan, the planning commission, and the residents of this neighborhood who are most directly impacted have all said that this project is not for them and not for us. Secondly, I think it's way too dense for this location. Let's be clear, this location is not next to our neighborhood. It's not across the street from our neighborhood. It's in our neighborhood, surrounded two sides by houses and a third side by a park. And finally, as I stated before, I live on Santa Clara,

which happens to be a cut-through street in the neighborhood and with four small children, very concerned about the safety of it. Just four months ago we had a car coming down Santa Clara, lose control, end up in our front yard. And it doesn't take too much imagination to know that a project of this side will only increase the traffic going through our neighborhood. And as I said before, we planted our roots here, we did our research, we worked very hard to invest our families into this neighborhood. And we did that with the understanding that this was zoned

for business and not for a high density residential area right next to the very lowest density residential area and so we just ask that you support the planning commission

and all of us here thank you thank you uh joshua sherman come on down then carol park

good evening council members i've lived in park santiago for 37 years this is such a great neighborhood that when I had the opportunity to buy a house in Park San Diego 13 years ago I did I could have bought in other cities but it's hard to find a neighborhood like this one it is truly unique neighborhood that has charming character like no other I'm against the proposed building at 2525 Main Street it is too big too dense for that location and for the neighborhood I'm asking you to go along with the recommendation of the Planning Commission they spent a few months looking over the EIR and concluded that

it was not right for this location the commission is there to do the grunt work for you guys so you don't have to read the 600 page document then give you a thought-filled recommendation after hearing all sides they did that and voted no please take their advice do not set a future precedent of 81 units per dwelling acre that other developers would then try to take advantage of or even raise the density higher this is already too dense we don't need more luxury apartments in this area For any of the past speakers who have said they want to or need to live at the proposed 2525 development,

they don't have to wait two or three years for it to be built. Within blocks of 2525, there are currently two luxury apartments with vacancies and more apartments already groundbreaking. As of this morning, available apartments to rent between Prisma and 1110 is over 100 available spaces. Why are these people wanting to wait years for this proposed complex when brand new luxury ones are already available? Do they just enjoy arguing for hours on Monday nights, or do they have unspoken motives? Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Carol Park, followed by Sharon Gullickson.

And we're two speakers away from the halfway mark.

Good evening. My name is Carol Park, and I live on Poinsettia Street in Park Santiago. I'm opposed to this project, however, I'm not opposed to apartments. within our community. I'm fine with the 375 units at the Windsor, the 260 units at the 1110, the 182 units at the Prisma, the 260 units coming to 999 Town and Country, the 727 units coming also to Town and Country, the 247 units at 2700 North Main, and the 1900 proposed units at Main Place Mall. Build every one of them. I am supportive of these 4,000 other units built or proposed within a half a mile of Park Santago, north of

Memory Lane. Our north end community is ripe for well-planned development. I am excited about the Main Place Mall transformation and what it can do for Santa Ana. I think that apartments north of Memory Lane and the traffic these new residents will bring us is just part of healthy growth and commerce that we as a community will have to come to terms with. But it can't be denied that making the Main Place Mall a regional destination and having 4,000 units a half a mile north will not have an adverse effect with cut-through traffic in our neighborhood. And I do not think that you

should reduce the Main Place by 500 units and give that allotment to 2525 Main Street, as was the solution suggested by Planning Commissioner Alderetti. The density and capacity should remain as part of the Commerce and Entertainment Center north of Memory Lane. That is why I think it's so important to moderate your development when it makes sense to do so. It's a balancing act that needs great planning and intentional deliberation. Your decision to allow this project will be one that the North End and our community will contend with for generations. What will our neighborhood's tipping point be?

I believe 4,000 units north of Memory Lane and the main place mall is as high as we can go. Thank you.

Thank you. Sharon Golickson. Thank you Carol. And after Sharon, Brian Portraj.

Potere. City Council and Mayor Polito, I oppose the rezoning of 2525 Main Street. It's unacceptable for several reasons. A dense residential property would add nearly 290, just about, dwellings to this small property. It would increase the number of residences in our neighborhood by almost 50% on a piece of land that's about 1 one-hundredth the size of our whole neighborhood. This is unacceptable. Park Santiago already has far too much traffic. A dense residential property would add even more traffic. That's unacceptable. The traffic on Main Street and the streets in the general vicinity will become even more crowded.

Traffic is especially heavy in the morning and evening, and a dense apartment complex would make it considerably worse, no matter what the statistics claim. That's unacceptable. Removing a chunk of Santiago Park and then replacing with irregular and unusable little bits of land is unacceptable. Adding an apartment complex would make our neighborhood much worse, not better. The best thing about Santa Ana is the pockets of gorgeous neighborhoods. Are you willing to change our city for the worst? We take pride in our neighborhood because it's beautiful, diverse, and has character.

A big, new, dense luxury apartment complex will make a lot of money for the developer, but will change our neighborhood and the surrounding area forever. That is unacceptable. The underhanded way the developer has acted from the very beginning is disgraceful. The developer bought the property knowing that it was not zoned for residential, got it for a lower price because of it, and then proceeded to do whatever was necessary to make a huge profit. You know what I'm talking about. Everyone else has mentioned it. So they'll receive $1.5 million approximately every single month in rent. In Santa Ana, are our city leaders for sale?

I hope not. I hope we can have faith in you guys. Anyone with enough money can get whatever they want otherwise. Please think about that. It's really unacceptable.

Thank you for your comment. Brian Porterey. Go ahead, sir.

Hello, I'm Brian Porterey from Santa Ana, and I oppose this project, the rezoning. You've already heard people talk about many reasons. I want to talk about a few that haven't been mentioned about. A study done by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, planning and regional studies, concluded that neighborhoods built of homes, of homeownership, have a lower crime rate than neighborhoods with rentals. So putting in 500 units, which is going to take our rental ratio in the neighborhood from probably 20% to more than 50%, is also going to increase the crime rate in our neighborhood.

Yes, the developer has said if they are allowed to have the zoning change, they will have a roaming security guard for a couple years and then decide not to do it anymore. And that will put more of a burden on the Santa Ana police. It will put more of a burden on the people living there. They will decide, you know what, this crime rate is just not acceptable. They are going to move out.

the developers have been bad and nasty to the residents during this courtship phase what do you think they're going to do to Santa Ana once they have that ring on their hand and they don't have to worry about it anymore it's going to be even worse trying to deal with these people the demand for luxury apartments as you've heard there are lots of units going up Brooklyn had the same problem they built a luxury apartment rented out for lots of money couldn't find enough tenants so what did the landlords do they started renting to the local colleges doubling up the capacity in each of the units doubling the rent for

them and making it awful for the tenants that are living there that's going to make it awful for us if they can't fill this space and they start downgrading the tenants from luxury apartments to college students who are living for to a unit which you're only supposed to have two I wanted to be green but I can't be green so I'm going to be red. And then just... You could be yellow. I'm not going to be yellow. Spoken from the man who fought City Hall 25 years ago and won. Paul didn't mention that. One thing I would just like to ask Chris from the Orange County Business Council, if he's so for this,

is he open to opening up the traffic barrier at Santa Clara and Broadway so that the traffic through his neighborhood is going to double, going right past the mayor's house every day?

Thank you. All right, thank you.

Ellen Kolonikey.

And that's the 100-person mark. So we're now officially halfway to 200.

Sabrina Wilson, Speaker 101. Please go ahead.

Hi. Hi, I'm Sabrina and I live on North Surth Burgeon Street in Park Santiago. I'm definitely very sensitive to this project since it backs right up to my home. I'd like to start by thanking Council Member Cecilia Iglesias for being the only person for taking the time to come to my home, ask questions, to see our neighborhood and my backyard to see firsthand the impact this project could have on our neighborhood. Our neighborhood is not against change, progress, or development. We just want responsible change. This project would be the biggest project going in in Santa Ana against an R1.

This project is too dense and they haven't made realistic projections to the impact of parking. Many people who have been brought in by the developers who keep mentioning affordable housing and needing places to live, I'd like them to know that Prisma and the other projects, which is their other project in town and country, are not full, so they have many options there. The developer in Mintai constantly keep mentioning the amount of money this project would bring to the city. Wouldn't the Main Place Mall project generate more money for the city than this?

The Planning Commission took the time to review the EIR and see the faults of the study and voted no against this project. And I hope you guys do the same. Thank you.

Thank you. After Sabrina Wilson, we have Rocio Estrada and then Carlo Bonanini.

Bonanini, I believe it is. Rocio Estrada. That was Sabrina Wilson. And then Carlo. After Carlo, Jesse Truce, I believe. T-R-U-C-E. And then Karen Eaton.

Hello. Hi, my name is Karen Eaton. I live in Park Santiago with my husband and four children. And I oppose this project. As my neighbors have mentioned before, development is great, but development needs to be done responsibly, and this apartment is not fit for this specific location. One of my main concerns is the intersection on Main Street where the entrance to our neighborhood is. We already have to drive very cautiously out of our neighborhood because of cars either ignoring or not seeing the no turn on red sign. I can imagine it becoming even more of a danger zone, possibly causing car accidents and injuries,

especially if we add backed-up traffic due to cars entering and exiting the apartment project. Also, Park Santiago, Flora Park, Washington Square, and the surrounding beautiful historic neighborhoods are a gem of Santa Ana. Visitors are in awe of our neighborhood, and it changes their perception of Santa Ana. This modern apartment project would tower over the northwest portion of our beautiful historic neighborhood. I hope you do your duty to protect and preserve these places that are unique to our city. Thank you.

Thank you, Karen. Brenda Cam, I believe it is. Call? Well, but the double L's, you have fancy penmanship, it looked like in them. Please go ahead.

Okay. When I was 21, my mother told me we were moving to Santa Ana, and honestly, I was a bit shocked and surprised. But the minute I saw the 1910 Victorian craftsmen that we were moving into and experienced the pride and friendliness of our neighbors, I understood how special Park San Diego is. I have lived there for 30 years and been a homeowner for 21 of them. I have also proudly taught 28 years in Santa Ana to help the city I have come to love. It is not my intention to freeze people out. I was raised by a single mother and had to move from apartment to apartment most of my life.

I am not against development in the right location, but this needs to stay commercially zoned. We're already losing businesses by town and country in favor of more apartments there and at the Main Place Mall. There are also more going up by my school site. Tom's Truck Center is being developed with low-income apartments, but at least they are not looming over residential housing, but in an industrial area. Here are the reasons I think it's a bad idea. Number one, it is common sense. Number two, many apartments are already being built in Santa Ana and Anaheim

and are still empty, so we need businesses or cultural centers more than lodging. The ERR did not take into account the main street, main place, and town and country, which everybody has said. The traffic will get worse, especially with the changes in the freeway on-ramp and the 17th Lincoln Bridge. The Waze traffic app will be rerouting all these cars through our neighborhood in order to avoid a log jam on Main Street and Grand Avenue. I know the majority of you council members don't live in our ward, but I ask you to put yourself in our place and vote no to preserve this beautiful historic neighborhood.

Mayor and Council members, thank you for allowing me to speak and for suffering through the public comments. A special thanks to Councilwoman Iglesias for coming to our house on Spurgeon Street to hear our concerns. I'm here tonight to share with you that the most dense apartments I could find against R1 between the counties of Orange, LA, and San Diego was at a density of 60 dwelling units per acre. This project is currently proposed at 81. The question you should ask yourself is why is no one else doing anything like this? I would also like to share with you that my wife and I love living in the city

and we want to be residents for decades to come so that one day we can be the old people who are fighting to preserve this neighborhood. That will not happen if this project is a total dud. If the concerns of the most impacted residents and planning commission come true, the damage that will be done to this area will resonate for decades. my wife and I encourage redevelopment but we want the city to learn from the mistakes it has made in the past we can redevelop but we need to be smart as to how we go about it we need to remind ourselves that not every development is

good development I urge you to vote no and to push for responsible and precedent development I don't envy the position that you are in and just looking at the audience I hope you can see the gravity of your decision thank you

okay we're now starting speak for 110 so we're now between 110 120 Adriana de la Rosa

good evening mr. mayor and council members thank you so much for allowing us to speak and I would like to introduce the next 12 neighbors of mine if you would allow us kindly to put up a presentation

Would that be okay? It's just a few slides and just go as fast as you can. Okay. We're gonna save 10 speakers if I do this wonderful. Thank you

Well, just for no, it's 12 12 12. I'll save 12 speakers. No, no what I mean is what I just go fast. Thank you

um

Real fast.

You were trying to trick me. All right. I've been a resident of Park Santiago for 12 years. Santa Ana is a place of amazing potential.

Do you want to let somebody else go while she figures it out? She may not figure it out.

No. Just speak. Everybody the same.

Okay. So.

All right. I know. Should I start over? Just start fast.

So anyway, thank you. Thank you for considering that. Santa Ana is a place of amazing potential, as you all know. And my family and I love to serve and participate in efforts that enhance and strengthen the cultural life in Santa Ana. For this reason, I, along with my neighbors, have been dedicated to this mission to preserve the vibrancy and thriving community in our city.

As you will hear from, and as you've heard from many of my neighbors today, this proposed project does not enhance our neighborhood or our city, but in fact detracts from the vibrancy and community life that we enjoy. In addition and most concerning is what this project means for the future of Santa Ana. I ask you with all humility, please listen intently to my neighbors who will speak right after me.

They have poured themselves out in proving that this project is not beneficial but harmful to the economic, architectural, cultural and social fabric of our city. beginning with the negative impacts into our neighborhood and following with the overall losses to the city in several areas. Thank you. Thank you very much and I am against the project obviously and we trust that you will do the right thing. Thank you sir.

Karen Iger followed by Mike Plantamura

and after Mike we have Thomas Cartney

thank you council for sitting through all this tonight my name is Karen Igar I'm a resident of Park Santiago and I'm here to ask you to vote against this project and against the change in the zoning when the developer and your planning staff look at the property they have tunnel vision and they just see Main Street. But if they just look to the west and look to the south, they'll see a beautiful neighborhood of Park Santiago. Custom houses, seven dwelling units per acre. Houses that were built, 20s, 30s, 40s. Just a gem of a neighborhood. Seven dwelling units per acre.

What they want to build adjacent to us is 81 dwelling units per acre, which is almost 12 times the density. So if you look at your dais here and the seven council members that you should have, that represents seven dwelling units per acre. If I had more than two minutes, I would ask everyone behind me in the room to come and fill in this space here. And that would represent the 81 dwelling units per acre. So if you can imagine that change in density right next to each other, it just doesn't make any sense from a planning perspective.

There is one thing that I want to agree with, with the developer, and that is that it should have a project labor agreement, it should use local labor, it should use union labor, and it should pay a prevailing wage. But that could be any project at that site. It could be a project that is in context with the neighborhood, that is supported by the neighbors, and makes sense to everyone. You could have a win-win at that site, and you wouldn't have to be here until midnight every other Monday. Thank you.

Thank you, Mike. Followed by Thomas Cartney, followed by John Fradkin.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. My name is Mike Plannemura. I live in Park Santiago. This project has been flawed from the very beginning. The planning department advertised the property prior to the sale as being available for unlimited height and unlimited density, even though the current zoning is professional office. And can you imagine unlimited? Density is more than tenfold greater than the adjacent neighborhood, 81 units per acre versus 7 units per acre, which the planning project management team tries to justify by showing seven high-density apartment projects.

However, if you use Google Earth, you'll see that none of those are adjacent to single-family residences. It also violates the general plan use element, which requires the project to be harmonious in scale and character with existing development in the area. Project teams stated that these parcels are not part of Park Santiago, but if you look at the city maps and the parcel descriptions, it is in fact part of Park Santiago.

The EIR doesn't account for the 1900 additional units above the 3500 units already planned for this half mile radius and made no effort to revise or reflect this major impact, while other minor revisions were made to the EIR. It violates the municipal code for parking space requirements by providing only 64% of the requirement. It also violates the general floor plan area ratio for North Main Street by 35% with the 35% denser requirements. You can't change the rules of the game once the game has started. If you could, the Saints would have been in the Super Bowl, not the Rams.

Last November, the residents of Santa Ana gave the City Council a very powerful tool when they passed the additional tax measure. This tool should allow the Council members to make decisions on developments based primarily upon merit and the impact to the residents of Santa Ana instead of being influenced primarily by the amount of money the developer dangles in front of you. Please recognize the power of this tool and make sound decisions. A wise man once said that all new development projects create revenue for the city. It is important to recognize the long-term effects of the development.

We live in the greatest country of the world, of the people, by the people, for the people. Please reject this project and request the planning team to develop a win-win-win project for all involved. Thank you.

Thank you, Thomas. Followed by John. Followed by Diane Fradkin.

Hello Mayor and Council, my name is Thomas Cartney and I'm a resident of Park Santiago and I have some neighbors helping me out here with regard to the graphics that I produced that you have copies of and distributed to you. I'm here to speak, well first and foremost, I'm also the former sales and marketing director for an architectural illustration company that employed 22 artists full time for those entire 24 years. So I know my way around looking through a set of architectural plans and creating packages like the package that you have been looking at to approve this project. So what I'm here to speak to is it actually said

in the applicant's presentation, they stated that by all measurable accounts that this project will be less than significant as impact to our neighborhood, and that is just profoundly untrue. So what I've produced for you today is I also produced a graphic. Without payment, I sketched up every house along Spurgeon Street that backs up to this project, and this is the first time that you are seeing what the true scale and massing of this project looks like Again single-family homes

Now in my process of doing this just yesterday I came across an egregious

Discrepancy with regard to everything that you have been looking at to approve this project. Please look at the red line on the first graphic You see the amenity deck these are elevations north south east and west when i was preparing my graphic i thought god you know the ghosting technique for you know showing your setbacks the elevations you've been looking at are so ghosted it seems like the top line of the building is across the freeway so the red line if you can see that there is a height of 90 feet on three out of the four

elevations it exists on the fourth this is undeniable and that red bar is showing what the true height of that amenity deck is seen from spurgeon street now you have uh the mistake was made uh or the omission was made if you look at the sections of the building section the first section on the top. John and council members have this. You will see what should be showing in this drawing. Thank you. Be around. We'll have questions at the end.

John?

Good evening Mayor and council members. I'd like to speak to something that we really haven't talked about too much, the legality of this project. The current project that we're talking about is in violation of many aspects of the Santa Ana General Plan, the most obvious of which is the title language of land use policies Goal 3, which states, quote, preserve and improve the character and integrity of existing neighborhoods, unquote. The applicant is asking for a general plan amendment. This is a big deal and should not be taken lightly. When you change the general plan, you are in effect breaking a previous

contract with long-time residents who had no reason to believe that there would not be a level of continuity in the city's plans. On November 16, 2015, the city's planning division staff drafted something called an envisioning map, which identified study areas that could potentially have an increase in development, density, and building heights. The North Main Street corridor, including the subject property, was identified as an area that may be considered. This envisioning map did not go through a formal adoption process and even included a disclaimer note on it that said,

quote, this map represents a conceptual effort and its contents are in a draft format and do not represent any formal efforts to rezone or redesignate properties shown, unquote. Draft envisioning maps turn into approved maps only after they are properly vetted and analyzed, and the community has to be greatly involved in this process. The applicant and the city planning department are asking for a zone change on the subject parcel by using the specific development language of the Santa Ana Municipal Code in order to change the zoning to a customized zoning to fit the proposed building.

This is both an improper use as well as potentially an illegal use of the specific development code. The language of the code contained in Division 26 specific development is well named, as it is very specific. In fact, it recognizes the interdependence of land values and specifies that its use to change zoning can only be done when the results of that zoning change maintains the values of surrounding properties. Well, in the opinion of hundreds of concerned neighbors who live in Park Santiago, as well as real estate professionals such as Phil Schaefer of Seven Gables Real Estate,

the proposed gigantic apartment building will not maintain values and will in fact have a negative overall effect on the neighborhood. For this reason alone, the Division 26 specific development language cannot be used legally to change the zoning of the 2525 Main Street site. Thank you. Diane, you're next.

And then Ned Gantz.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members. Thank you for your time and service. I'm Diane Pradkin, Park San Diego. I'm opposed to the project as it's currently proposed today. The general plan designation for 25 North Main Street parcel is currently professional administrative office. It is not part of the District Center, as shown on the slide that you have in your handouts. The document before you, titled Request for Council Action, it states, the purpose for maintaining and supporting professional office areas are to increase employment opportunities for local residents,

enhance the diversity of the city's economic base, and to support the uses that create little to no nuisances to nearby residents or businesses. The professional administrative office use is symbiotic with single-family residential. The same document states district centers are major activity areas of the city and that residential development within these areas are allowed at a density up to 90 DUA. By using this statement, planning staff has chosen to admit key language here. Based on the city's general plan land use element, the statement actually says residential

development within some district centers are allowed at a density up to 90 units per acre when developed as an integral component of a master plan mixed use project. Consequently, the proposed district center general plan amendment is not at all part of a master plan mixed-use project and therefore the proposed high-density is not an allowable use the next slide in your in your handout provides clarification regarding seven eir comparison projects the seven projects used for comparison are a very poor comparison as none of these are projects located adjacent to single-family residential the implications of this difference

have not been correctly weighted by either the applicant or the city planning staff when comparing these seven projects to the proposed the applicant's two previous projects the heritage and prisma along with the mark utilize the specific development zoning to orchestrate the density for these locations these projects are entirely different as none share boundaries with single family residential thank you so therefore the zoning is not appropriate with the special district

Thank you. Ned, followed by Pam Angel.

Evening, Mayor, City Council. Ned Gans. As of May 6th coming up, I will be an 18-year resident in Park Santiago, so I'm one of the new guys around here.

I wanted to address a little bit on traffic and parking, but before that I wanted to rebut a few like George, Rubin, and Elizabeth. I looked on my phone on apartments.com. Right now in Santa Ana there are 1,357 available as of today. So if they really do want to move here, they could right now. There are 1,153 available in Orange, and of course there are 3,200 new ones that are going in within a half a mile of where we are.

Even though the Planning Commission voted against, there are definitely some inconsistencies in their traffic and parking analysis on the EIRL report. The proposed secondary access to the project site will need to use walkie way. For this option to work, it will require state and federal approval. To our understanding, no one has been in contact with either of these agencies.

Parking. General plan housing element, which was revised January 14th, requires district centers to have 2.5 parking stalls per unit. This doesn't come close to that. The city presentation said the existing empty office building spaces generate 791 trips daily. It's empty. How can we have that?

And the city presentation omitted the level of service for the existing freeway segments, which is the ERA shows surrounding freeway access level of service in 20 of 30 data points currently at a failing grade. There's also a suggestion of valet parking, which I think is a little ridiculous. They might do that for a little while and then quit. So am I green?

You're yellow and the yellow is getting dark. Thank you That's all you done. Yep. All right. You're a yellow

Pam angel

By the way, we're we're at 117 So we're only have I guess 83 speakers left

Please keep going go ahead Pam good evening mayor and council members and have we lost someone our ward

Do you want to come back and speak? I'll go to the next speaker.

No, that's fine. I don't have a lot to say that my wonderful Park Santiago family has already said and that I oppose this project. It's not good for our neighborhood. We're a family. We're not just a neighborhood.

Thank you. Thank you.

Marnie Schabel,

Schnabel, Bill Bonnet

I'm Arnie Schnabel, I'm a resident of Park San Diego Thank you Mayor and Council for listening I'm here to discuss some false statements in the developer's presentation One point that was stated was that they will create an eight story buffer between existing neighborhoods and high rise towers along Main Street We currently have a buffer with the professional building that will join the other 3,000 plus plan units near the Main Street corridor. They also said we've been listening to our neighbors. We've said from the very beginning that the density was unacceptable even with their insignificant efforts in reducing the size.

It is not moderate density housing but clearly high density.

They said the setbacks is six times the standard, but in reality it's not even being met at 42 feet, which is shown here on this board. In conclusion, Santa Ana has a rich heritage, a juxtaposition of new while preserving the old and historical. The general plan is a document that guides the development, conservation, and enhancement of Santa Ana. I would like to see the City Council vote no and take as much pride in the city's diverse history as its residents do. We are not for no development. We are for responsible development that's about planning for the future,

leaving a sense of history for forthcoming generations, as well as embracing our past. Thank you.

Thank you. Bill, followed by Dale.

Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, Council Members. My name is Bill Bonnett. I'm a 15-year resident of Park Santiago, and I strongly oppose this high-density apartment complex. What's perhaps more interesting, for the last 20 years, I've been working extensively in commercial real estate development, both as a developer and a property owner. My family has been in property development for the last 75 years. The site at 2525 Main Street continues to be an outstanding location for a professional office building. Outstanding.

It is ideally suited because it is on our primary business corridor. Not transportation corridor, not transportation nod. It is a business corridor designed for businesses.

This professional office use would complement the nearby main place shopping mall, local restaurants, single family homes, and thousands of new apartments now in development or recently opened in the area. With all the new apartments already being developed in the immediate area, Santa Ana now needs to be providing a new office building at this location for all of the soon-to-be-arriving apartment residents as well as existing professional residents to be able to work locally.

This would allow hundreds more Santa Ana residents to not only live in Santa Ana, but to work in Santa Ana, thereby spending more of their paychecks in Santa Ana and not other cities. Further, and most importantly, it is a use that the neighborhood communities support. We want a new office building at that location. Make no mistake. Having a new building there will provide long-lasting economic engine for the communities using

constant $2,017 as was done by the firm RGS for the planning staff report they calculated I'm just going to one wrap up they calculated $543,000 in new net revenue to the city with a new office building it will not be $543,000 per year but $460,000 a number very close thank you Thank you.

Dale, you are speaker number 120. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members that are left here.

Back in August 7th, the EIR was addressed and issued. It went through the review cycle. in October 4th the review cycle was completed. It's interesting to note that on October 22nd Art Pedroza said at the planning commission meeting that the developer knew what he was buying when he paid $17 million. He knew that property was not zoned for a mega huge apartment complex that's going to ruin our neighborhood. Somewhere along the line shortly after that he's a very good proponent of this project. I don't know really what changed

on that. This is at least the fourth project that this developer has brought forth to the City Council. The three previous projects saw the applicant sell its majority interest after obtaining the entitlements and before construction began. As some of you might recall, after the entitlements were obtained for the Met and the Heritage, the owners came back and wanted to renegotiate the development agreement. They were successful in this endeavor. It's not hard for me to imagine that anything different will happen with this project. The City of Santa Ana should not be known as an easy mark when it comes to building high density homes.

The EIR is just one tool for you guys to use, so I hope you're going to use the full gamut of your resources to evaluate this project. As other people have said, we do encourage use of union labor and would rather just see them build in accordance with the current zoning. The developer also said that the only solution to the housing shortage is to build more homes. This chart, you may not be able to see it, but Santa Ana, high density. These are the other surrounding neighborhoods that show the density of those. We're at 12,000. Fullerton, where we heard one speaker say, we need to build more housing in Santa Ana,

they're at roughly 6,000 residents per square mile. We're at 12,000. I was wondering what Fullerton's doing to help this project move along. So in summary, I'm just hoping that we take a look at what this is really going to do. Santa Ana's doing a lot to address the housing issue. The regional housing needs analysis will come out next month, and I hope you guys look at that report. I believe it's going to say we meet our requirements, and we're doing our fair share. Thank you.

Thank you, Dale. Jeff Katz?

followed by Rob Richardson. Thank you Mayor City Council members my name is Jeff Katz I'm an advocate for the homeless with Second Chances Orange County I want to thank the City Council for supporting that organization I'm also a neighbor from Heliotrope in Santa Clara and a member of Ward 3 and when I was here speaking at the Planning Commission against this project I asked a rhetorical question. Who will stand up for Ward 3? I thought it was rhetorical, but I stand here tonight and I look at an empty seat and I ask the same question. Who will stand up for Ward 3?

At the night of the Planning Commission and pretty evident tonight, a pattern has emerged. if you live in Ward 3 you're speaking out against the project if you're coming from LA or any other city somehow you have a reason to vote for the project which should make it pretty clear now the policy behind residency in a ward because it's through residency you get an understanding of the fabric of a community and you can make an informed decision about these matters look I'm not against development but I've witnessed what has happened in Irvine and everything going south thanks to the Irvine

Company and what has emerged has been a model of redundancy and soullessness. If we approve this project we will begin to suck the soul out of the gem of Santa Ana. If you want an exhibit of this just go to historic French Park. Beautiful homes but 40-50 years ago we started to allow apartment buildings to be sprinkled in amongst these homes not wise planning and it took an act of the city council to put a stop to it i ask you we when you make these mistakes we live with them forever

buildings don't come down but neighborhoods get destroyed don't make the mistake again mayor you have made unbelievable progress with the corridor between that and and downtown don't let this project be your legacy continue with that vision that you have thank you

thank you Rob Richardson followed by Katherine Houston mr. mayor members of

the City Council Rob Richardson thank you for giving me this opportunity thank you for providing the heaters outside tonight that was a good step forward

for the comfort of all the people who are here tonight, and I wish that had happened the last time. We've had a number of very eloquent speakers here tonight who have spoken on behalf of opposing this particular project. It has changed little from the outset. It has been, from the beginning, too big, too dense, and too close to single-family homes. That fact has not changed. And it is now time, I believe, for this council to turn the page and to encourage a fresh start on this site and to help develop something that has the support of residents of this city, the council, and the development community as well.

We have missed that mark dramatically with this project and with this process. Now I know that not moving forward with this project risks sending the word to developers that the city doesn't support development. I would argue the alternative. I would suggest to you that a no vote tonight and a desire to restart this process would be to signal to all, the people in this room, developers and everybody else, that this city intends to be selective in what it is that we do push.

Now, there is risk involved in stopping this process and starting over. Some will say we'll never get agreement. You can't get 100% to agree on what this is. I want to tell you right now that based on what I've seen, 85 to 90% of the people in Santa Ana that are affected by this project have been brought together and they disagree completely with this proposal for all the reasons that have been expressed here tonight.

And there is no amount of tinkering with this project to shave it to 25% less of what it is today, or putting in some more Amazon lockers or whatever else it is that would be proposed that is going to do anything other than to put a different color of lipstick on this pig. This project is too big, it's too dense, it's too close to residents. I encourage you to oppose this project, start fresh, and let the community, along with the council and the development community, work for something that we can get behind that is helpful to this city. Thank you Rob. Thank you.

Catherine Houston, followed by Billy Lay, followed by John Sherman.

I live in Park Santiago, as many of the people here who've spoken tonight also do. And I think from what I've seen and from my conversations with people in the community, this project has essentially no community support. It has no support of the Planning Commission.

And if you as a city council choose to ignore that and approve it, I hope that you are proud enough of that decision that you'll place a large bronze plaque right on the most visible part of this project so that we and our children and grandchildren can remember what you've done for our community.

Thank you. Billy Lay followed by John Sherman, followed by Virgil Nickel.

Blessings to all of you, and Mr. Mayor, it's Lee, like the Chinese laundry, but I'm the English butler. L-E-I-G-H pronounced Lee. My name is Billy Lee. I have resided in Park Santiago for 42 years with my wife, and we are delighted people to be there. Santiago Park community has about 1,100 homes. More than that, but about 1,100. If you say a couple people per home and then a couple more for children, that's about 4,000 people. Mr. Solario came to our meeting last week. He really gave us no conclusion, no answers, no hope that Santiago Park community is a place where he likes representing us. Shame on you, Mr. Solario.

But seriously, seriously now, I'm going to change the perspective just a tiny bit. If each of you council members, including you Mr. Solario, if you were all living in Santiago Park community and you knew that an eight-story parking monolith was going in your backyard or your side yard, we would not be having all these discussions. We would not be having all these meetings. You would immediately say no, no, no, this is not right. I do not want my children in this. I don't want them looking at it. I don't want to look at it. And you would just go on with

something that's really amenable. And then we talk about the corruption. Where do we begin? Where do we end? There is corruption. Hello, yellow light. There's corruption. People are getting paid to come and talk. They don't know Santa Ana from the man on the moon. I beg you, I beg you in God's name to be smart. You, Mr. Solara, you represent us better than you've been doing. And the rest of you just represent Santa Ana has been, I mean how many times can we say the same things over and over again? This is not the right project for this site. At the very first meeting we told the developers at that time, this is

not the right site for this project. God bless you guys. Please be wise. Do the right thing. Start it tonight. Mr. Slower, you say, Mr. Chairman, I vote that we say no to this. And then let the rest of these guys say amen, no, and let's go home and never come back again.

All right. That was the English butler. Now John Sherman. Please go ahead, sir.

My goal tonight is to be in the green area, so the green club. So that's my goal. Good evening, mayor and city council members. My name is John Sherman, and I live in Park San Diego. I hope that you're pleased that your Santa Ana citizens care enough about this issue that they've come out and personally expressed their concerns to you. It's not normal. Many of your police have said they've never seen so many neighbors come out on an issue. And that says a lot about them and about you that you're willing to hear us. Our Park San Diego neighborhood is very diverse in many ways,

including several generations of ages living in the area together. Due to the advanced age of many of our seniors in Park San Diego, they haven't been able to participate in all of our late-night meetings. San Ann is blessed with many neighborhoods that could be called precious jewels that many Orange County residents who now live elsewhere are beginning to consider as a location of their next home purchase. Park San Diego neighborhood is a historical neighborhood, whether or not it has the official designation or not. In 1980, Park San Diego neighborhood banded together to help close Santiago Street in order to protect that jewel.

It worked. In 1994, Park San Diego neighborhood banded together again. 700 residences came out to stop Caltrans from building a pedestrian bridge in order to protect this jewel. It worked. In 2018, at the Sunshine meeting for this project, over 500 Park San Diego neighbors met at the Discovery Museum to say no to this project. Tonight, February 19th, our neighborhood desperately needs your help to disprove of this present project as presented. Our neighborhood is not against appropriate new development, but this project as presented is not it. Thank you for listening.

You started with your intentions. You were green for quite a while, but you ended yellow, but at least not red. Thank you. Thank you. Virgil. I see Virgil walking his dog sometimes. Go ahead.

Yeah, we live in the same neighborhood. I heard people here, first of all, my name is Virgil Nickel, I live in Flora Park, and by the way the crow flies, within a half a mile of this project. I went by there and I see that it's right next to a freeway. That seems good to me. And there's other vacant property next to the freeway down by 4th Street, too. That would be a good project.

We need housing in this town. We need, and what I hear about this project, it's going to be expensive housing, but the thing is, when new housing comes in, whether it's apartments or single family housing, the more housing, the cheaper rents will be and easier for people to get in things. We have to have more housing. Now we heard some about parking. Well in my neighborhood what they did there's no parking there on the streets. I can't park on the street unless I go down to the city and buy a ticket to put on my car

so I park overnight. Because some of the residents wanted to ban parking from the apartment owners. I voted against it. We pay for our streets we should be able to park but that's one solution that this Tocanago Park could have is the ban parking if you're not a resident of that area the other thing is I don't know if you can build a big enough fence or wall between that part from from the people small residents to this building should be able to build something there it's keeping noise levels down and things like that but I think that the people should

have a right to build a project there. This may not be the right project but it's the one that I think has gone as far as and maybe there's some corrections can be made to it to mitigate some of the circumstances and things like that. But I'm in favor if that's if the choice is yes or no then I say yes to the project.

All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you Virgil.

Michelle Lujan followed by Suzanne Blond.

Hello. My name is Michelle Lujan and I've been a homeowner in Park Santiago for 13 years now. I know the developer says the majority of homeowners in Park Santiago is made up of older population. But there are many young families in our neighborhood. I'm home daily as I homeschool my children and I see that many parents are walking their babies and young children throughout our neighborhood during the day. Our neighborhood is filled with many children. My daughter frequently rides her bike with her friends throughout the neighborhood. Our neighborhood is a beautiful dynamic and it would be a shame to see it ruined. By rezoning this

piece of land you would be disrupting what nearly everyone who visits our neighborhood calls a hidden gem. It truly is one of the amazing neighborhoods in Santa Ana and I would even dare to say in all of Orange County. Neighbors actually walk the streets daily chatting and interacting with friends. Neighbors know who their neighbors are. They know them by name. Children are always outside playing. When one of the beautiful historic homes in our neighborhood caught fire several years ago, people rallied around and provided meals and support for that family. Every year we have a neighborhood Easter egg hunt, potluck.

We have progressive dinners. We have the best Fourth of July parade in our neighborhood. Many kids come out and decorate bites, scooters. Many families even build floats to walk through the streets, wave to the people visiting our neighborhood. The fire department even shows up to lead the parade with their fire truck. There's a strong neighborhood pride in Park Santiago. So make no mistake when I say we strongly oppose the rezoning and building of the apartment at 2525 Main Street. Our neighborhood is too important to us, and it is a hidden gem.

I want to close by directly appealing to you, our mayor, and to our city council, who we elect. We, the members of Park Santiago, have voted. Okay, we have elected, we were not elected, you were not elected by the people who have showed up and were paid by the developer to cause a scene. Hopefully you're holding true to your office by considering the concerns of the residents that are raising before you instead of seeing dollar signs offered up by the developer.

Clearly this project is not a good match for the parcel of land. The environmental impact report shows it, our neighborhood is trying to express it, and the preliminary vote of the Planning Commission agrees with us. Please vote no to stop this rezoning, the building of the apartments, and the tarnishing of our great neighborhood. Thank you.

Thank you, Michelle. Suzanne. Followed by Christina Smith.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members. My name is Suzanne Blau. and I've been a member, I mean a resident of Park Santiago. This is my 17th year in the neighborhood and I oppose this project. As a very brief background, I'm an attorney who has only worked with the low and needy populations through non-profits. I have never worked as an attorney for my own practice. I provide free legal representation to the poor and I have worked primarily with the immigrant community.

I share this with you because I want to sort of reject some of the claims, not that I heard so much tonight because it was primarily Park Santiago residents that spoke, but at the last meeting there were claims that we were selfish, nimbiists, anti-progressive, and even racist. Eso no es cierto. It's not right. Not all of us are against development. I applaud people that want to provide more housing, and I would be in support of a project that provided more housing, even on the outskirts or within the borders of my neighborhood.

This is not the right project to achieve that. I want to be clear. It is too big and too dense, as many people have said. It is too expensive. It is too luxury, and it is not at all consistent with the immediate adjacent neighborhood. I welcome affordable, reasonable housing in Santa Ana. I welcome people of all races, ethnicities, religions, even those of us that are non-religious, and incomes. And I welcome them into the neighborhood. And I hope that all the people that spoke tonight in support of this project and this housing get housing. And hopefully in Santa Ana,

and there's been reference to lots of other opportunities for them to do so. And I hope one day they move into one of, my home was built in 1924. It's been there a long time and a lot longer than all of us.

The 2525 is not offering a real solution to the housing crisis.

It is not providing affordable or reasonable housing. It is not the answer to legitimate...

Suzanne, you've gone red.

Oh, pardon me. Thank you and good night. Thank you.

Christina, followed by Renee Flores.

Hi, good evening. My name is Christina Dorsa-Smith, and I'm a 40-year, believe it or not, resident of the Morrison Park Neighborhood Association, or Morrison Park Neighborhood. I'm against this project because I believe it's too large, too dense, and does not complement the area or surrounding areas. As said by other people, North Santa Ana has a number of gems and wonderful neighborhoods. We need to recognize the value of the neighborhoods and do what we can to preserve the quality of life that currently exists in these areas.

If you approve this project, I'm very concerned about what that means for future developments in Santa Ana. I'm also hoping that you realize the other developments that are being considered even though they weren't considered in some of the reports there's some other developments that maybe are much better than this one I'm asking that you not approve the project. Thank you

Thank you, Renee

Followed by Dan Peters, I believe How are you doing, Council? My name is Renee Flores and I have family members that live in Santa Ana. So I just want to say, you know, this project is an incredible investment in our city that will generate more funding for our local schools, our parks, and public safety and services. These investments will improve our quality for years to come and in the future. You know, the fact that this project will provide $5 billion to Santa Ana's general fund before a show even hits the dirt. You know what I mean? An additional $1.2 million yearly that can be used for youth programs,

education, city improvements, and more. This development will bring much indeed tax dollars and local improvements to our surrounding neighborhoods. Thank you.

Thank you Dan. Followed by Danny Carraza and then John Perales. Good evening mayor.

Good to see you again. Haven't seen you in a while. My name is Dan Peters and I'm a resident of Morrison Park neighborhood association. I moved in there with my wife and four kids in 1992. And my kids have gone to Santiago, they've gone to Willard, and they've gone to Santa Ana High, and several of them still live in the area. One moved to Arizona. I am opposed to this project because I've seen what happens in Santa Ana. If you look around Willard School, when I started taking my kids over there and dropping them off and seeing what happens when the city council takes an area by eminent domain, blights

it and puts in high-rise apartments and doesn't make any planning for impact on the water resources sewer resources the roads and the schools all of those have been negatively impacted there's already enough apartments being built up in this area i was shocked to learn that there's going to be 4 000 plus this project this project is in a particularly bad spot it's right on a bad corner with a lot of traffic I was shocked one day when I went for a bike ride and I actually rode through Park Santiago I didn't even know what a beautiful gem that was and I think Morrison Park is pretty doggone nice

but we see the impact in Morrison Park from people from the apartments that are adjacent to us that we don't even have access to but people will park in our neighborhood and then jump the fence and then go into because there's not enough parking and those are not high-density apartment complexes there except for the the end one i strongly recommend that you vote no on this project it is not supported by the community by none of us none of us want to see it so i don't know who does other than the people who are going

to make the coin off of it thank you thank you dan uh danny followed by john perrales followed by Emerald Cota. Hi, my name is Danny Carranza,

Mayor and City Council. I just want to encourage you guys to go ahead and vote yes. This project will generate lots of money that will be used other than, it will just be used for good in the city. The city needs money. It has one of the highest taxes, tax ratings in the city, and I just want to encourage you to go ahead. I'm sure you guys already have done your homework. You've seen what this is going to generate to the city. You have a high responsibility to do what's right for the community. I also understand what the people that live in the city currently are going through.

But you know, we're living in a new age and it's time to move forward and we have to allow these things to take place in our cities in order for us to generate growth and might not be the most popular vote but you guys got to do what's right what's best for the future of the city of Santa Ana thank you thank you John Perales

followed by Emerald Cota Monave Palafox

Mark Trimble

Satch Guillen

David Lang

thank you mayor and city council i'm satch gill and i have family residents here at santa ana this edition i'm for the addition because it can approve benefits santa ana with business and local economy the business in the main streets will benefit greatly from increase in revenue from new groups of residents living so close our malls the local restaurants are struggling because this area is in desperate need of resolution and renewal the development will create a new image for this city that is much better than just another office building thank you thank you david

Dr. David

followed by Lydia Silva

and Rafael Baez

Mr. Mayor and other members of the council my name is David Lang I'm a physician I've been a physician for 60 years and And a lot of that was on the East Coast. When I came out to the West Coast, because the Children's Hospital of Orange County asked me to create a new independent residency program,

I was shocked by the prices of houses in California.

My wife was very eager that we should live within walking distance of the Children's Hospital in Orange County. And so the realtor, I don't recall their names, showed us a picture and I said, well, I can't afford that house. And they said, well, make an offer.

So after my wife walked in the door of the house and looked, she said, oh, and this is a quote, oh, David, if I could have this, I'd never want anything else.

Well, that's a lie.

However, I did note what she said and made every effort to actually buy the house. And we did, and we've been living in it now for 32 years. And she and I have seven children who've enjoyed the house. and not a great deal has been said about Floral Park, although, Mr. Mayor, I know you're within walking distance where you live and where I live. But I just wanted to say I am immensely impressed

by everything I've heard today in this meeting. I was astonished actually by the people who have spoken and I wanted to add my own comments about Floral Park which is another gem.

We worked very hard for the last several years, and this year we won the best...

Go ahead, because you've got to conclude. Go ahead, Doctor. We won the prize for the best front yards in the... Congratulations. Yes. Thank you. However, today when I looked at the plaque that they gave me, down at the bottom it suggests that everybody should work hard to provide the beauty for our city. Thank you. The light's gone red.

Okay. Well, I will just say I am entirely in agreement with the vast number of people here who have spoken in favor of their neighborhood. Thank you.

Lydia Silva, followed by Rafael Baez, followed by Marilyn Fuller.

good evening mayor and council my name is Elia Silva and I'm for the project you know people out here are saying that that it's an eyesore I mean it's actually a beautiful building what I've seen and you know they're worried about who's gonna move in and they're saying all this high cost prices you know people that are moving and if you have this apartment building in your community it's gonna bring more revenue to Santa Ana because people are going to eat here and they're gonna shop here instead of you know not everybody comes to Santa Ana shop from East LA from Covina so if you build a project that's

gonna have a lot of apartment buildings then more people will probably shop here and eat here and if you're complaining about traffic there's traffic everywhere You're complaining about parking. There's parking problems everywhere. Park in your driveways. Or like the other gentleman said, with your community, get the permit parking. So you have permission to park on your streets, but if you have a visitor coming that wants to stay overnight, then they get that permit parking. But if you have those zones in Monterey Park also, a lot of apartment areas, permit parking if that's a problem but I'm for this and I hope you think wisely

thank you for your time thank you Lydia Rafael Baez followed by Marilyn Fuller

followed by Alex Samota

Marilyn

Good evening council I just want to talk about a specific on this project because we are opposed to the Edgewood entrance. We've always had the Edgewood entrance when this has been an office building and not really a problem. We would have a problem if we kept that open with an apartment building. People would for sure park in our neighborhood to avoid having to wait in a line to get into the high-rise parking structure. The second problem is that they would have to make a U-turn

to enter the entrance on Main Street. if they're coming south on maine they have to make a u-turn at edgewood we have an off-ramp

northbound five off-ramp at main street it goes up a hill they would not know why the traffic is backed up with all the people that are trying to get into the apartment building i think that Caltrans would have a fit about it. I don't understand how this even got passed.

The whole entrance on Walkie Way is still up in the air. And so I think that this project is really not suited for this five acres. Thank you.

Thank you, Alex.

Followed by Kathy Moorhead.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members. I'm a proud union laborer. I'm a proud resident of the city of Santa Ana.

We've been here for over 40 years. My parents own a spot right off of Old Grand in Fairhaven Park. My wife and I own a residence in Fairhaven Park. My sister owns a house in Santa Ana. I believe that the developer has given more than enough information that they're going to give back to the city and I truly believe that this project is good for the city and I want to see my brothers and sisters for the laborers get put to work and see what can happen to this city if we put something beautiful there I understand not everybody's always going to see eye to

eye with a lot of the projects but if this project doesn't go through I'm really afraid to see what

might come right after that thank you guys thank you Kathy followed by Alex Espinoza

good evening mayor and council there's been lots of reasons why this project should not be built And I'm going to give you another one that's been lightly touched on, but I'm going to elaborate. 2525 Maine is a serious health risk for anyone living there. No one is talking about this. Vote no on the 2525 Maine project.

Residents of the proposed Addison will be living within 200 feet of a freeway. For more than a decade, California air quality officials have warned against building homes within 500 feet of freeways, and with good reason. People suffer three times higher rates of asthma, heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer, preterm births, and recent research has added more health risks to the list, including childhood obesity, autism, and dementia. Neither Santa Ana City staff or Vineyard Development is addressing this deadly issue.

When no one wants to live in this project, once the health risks are truly understood of what is going to happen to this building, please vote no on this project.

Thank you. Alex followed by Pat Campbell.

Good evening. I'm Alex. I'm voting yes. I'm for it. That's pretty much all I have to say for my people. So, yes, thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Pat, followed by Robert Hernandez.

Hello, my name is Pat Campbell and I've been a resident in Park Santiago for 45 years. I love our neighborhood like all of my community members do. I don't want to go over all of the things that they were saying like parking. We all know about that. We know about the density. It's too much.

I'm personally I do not like the style of the buildings it doesn't seem to fit with our neighborhood we've got a lot of historical buildings there and especially one of the gals that's redoing her old historic home she's going to be seeing those apartment buildings in her backyard which will be kind of sad One thing I wanted to mention is the traffic. We don't have enough gas stations on the other side of Maine and forward.

Everyone will want to come through on Edgewood, go down to Grand and Santa Clara. That's the cheapest gas station about 99% of the time in Orange County.

and the grocery stores they're all over on the other side they would be going through Park Santiago. The closest one would be

Mother's which is too expensive for a lot of people and then Ralph's is way down on Chapman and Main. So I really would like you to think about this and vote no. Follow what the planning commission has designated, recommended for you guys to do. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Robert Hernandez, followed by Francis Rivas.

Hello, my name is Robert Hernandez, and I'm here to speak on the proposal for the project of 2025 North Maine. With existing residents who cannot find stable and steady housing it this looks like a first of the many towards more housing options if the city can partner with more agencies to put up a homeless shelter in a month why can't they move quickly on projects like this to work working folks and young families a place called home

At least these kinds of projects can benefit all of the city of residents with tax revenues, which is more than what a homeless shelter can do. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that our council worked really quickly with developers to move towards a homeless shelter solution. I want to see more, something more done with our residents who are working hard to meet their monthly financial committees. Thank you. I support.

Francis Rivas, followed by Peter Katz.

Hi, my name is Frances Rivas. I lived in Santa Ana all my life. My kids went to Hoover Elementary School. And I'm just saying that the apartments, the new luxury apartments, will be a great asset to Santa Ana. It will bring money to Main Place Mall and surrounding businesses. This will better Santa Ana. This will be better for everybody in Santa Ana. So please vote yes. Thank you.

Thank you. Emerald Cota. and on it Monette by the folks

Emerald Cota

Peter Katz

good evening mr. mayor council my name is Peter Katz I'm a 55 year resident of this city but i'm also president of the comlink board that oversees the quality of life in all 64 neighborhoods in this city and it's a tough job trying to preserve the quality of life in these neighborhoods with the encroachment of development on the edges of these communities so i served on the year-long process of updating the general plan and what good is it if we deal with these issues and we don't follow the guidelines and we start amending it before it's even adopted

under the urban design element it says improve the built environment through sustainable development that is proportional and aesthetically related to its setting ensure new development exhibits a functional comfortable scale in a relationship to its neighborhood and to preserve the character and uniqueness of the existing districts and neighborhoods in the city. This is adopted this will be come before you but we have to think about the people that live in the city. There are lots of places in this city for large projects. You have a piece of land on the

corner of 17th and Grand that has been vacant for 40 years and it could sustain a lot of affordable housing there that would not affect neighborhoods that's just one example in this city i attended a joint city council meeting between garden grove and santa anna and vince raised the issue of concern about the cleansing of the santa anita neighborhood if the willowwick golf courses zoning is changed to urban development you will drive neighborhood destroy that neighborhood as well this is the unique character of this city is its neighborhoods and for 30 years the comlink

organization has strived hard to do this so much so that the city of los angeles created its neighborhood council pattern after what we do in this city so let's start thinking about sustainable development that makes a lot of sense and not drive people out because the cost of housing will never go down it's going to go up everyone wants to come out here for the sunshine so don't kid yourselves folks. Thank you Emerald Cota. So in closing I would just like to say I'd like to train to nowhere let this project go nowhere. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Emerald Cota. I want to speak in support of our upcoming generations of young adults who are either out there working or going to college. With Orange County having such low housing availability which spikes the market we need to look at situations how to navigate away from this trend. Articles and reports on housing say that the problem is the lack of housing availability. If we have an opportunity to swing this imbalance, why not take it? With that being said, I am with this program. Thank you.

None Palafox.

Hi, my name is Monet Palafox. After listening to the discussions around the development fees that would be collected to help the cost of the public services, I'm in favor for this project. To me, it sounds like the new constructions and the renovue it generates is a sure bet. This also seems to be a win-win situation as it provides much-needed housing for our impacted city. Not to mention the local spending, which supports our small businesses and contributes to the city retail tax that helps our schools. I asked to support this project knowing that you are supporting our city.

People were saying that there's like asthma and like it's a health hazard and like all of these other things. But to be honest, it's all inevitable. It's everywhere.

Obviously, you don't know what that means. So I'm in support of this project and I hope you guys agree to it as well. Thank you.

Followed by Eve.

Followed by Mary Manqueros.

Good evening. My name is Mary Manqueros and as a 32 year resident of Floral Park and your neighbor, I would like to vocally oppose this project.

Thank you. Ann Wilson. Paul Mays. Ann Wilson.

Alexa Lopez.

Hi, my name is Ann Wilson, and my husband and I have been residents of Park Santiago for 30 years. We've raised our five children here, gone to high school and college in Santa Ana, and we are very happy with our neighborhood. It's been a great place to raise our children. We've invested lots of years here. People are surprised to find our neighborhood here. They might have all different varying ideas of Santa Ana, but they're really excited and impressed by the beauty of our neighborhood.

So the project at 2525 Main Street would be too big of a project and would be dangerous in traffic, and the overflow in parking would be detrimental to our neighborhood. and so we just want to add our voices to those who have expressed their opposition to this project I think there's plenty of other places you could build high-density housing and we think there are many other good uses for this project I mean for this lot so thank you very much

alexa go ahead what was your name sir come on down i called you twice earlier come on down

uh thank you city council for this opportunity to speak i've lived in uh park santiago for 30 plus years raised my children there and i would like the council to just kind of look at this from a slightly different perspective The union workers, of course, will come and build the building. They will do outstanding work, I'm sure. And I support union work, absolutely. But, you know, the other problem with that is they're going to be here for a year and a half or two years, get this building built, and they're going to move on to the next project.

They're not going to be here involved in the community. They're going on to the next project. The same with the developer. He's going to take his money and he's going to run. He's going to pick the building built. The developer lives who knows where. He's not going to live in the building. So where does that leave us? Well, that leaves the residents to deal with a building that they don't want. every day we would have to drive by this huge obnoxious building and think why is it built

every day we the residents will deal with the traffic we the residents will deal with having to look at this monster and specifically the residents on Spurgeon Street will walk out their back door and look up at an eight-story building how would you like to walk out your back door of your house see a building looking down on you i don't think i will surely wouldn't so let the workers build the building but build the right building not just some monster that

somebody's come up with you know this building is is not the one there are options look at all the options before you commit to yourself to this the residents are not anti-development we're only responsible development vote no on 25 25. thank you

alexa lopez luis lopez

regina flores

good evening mayor council members being a resident and born and raised in Santa Ana. I am for fully support this project new construction coming from a background construction. My dad worked construction mostly his whole life. He worked in Valencia and San Diego for most of my preteen years and up until high school. So I didn't spend much time with him in the evenings because by the time he got home I was already asleep. And by the time I woke up he was already gone for work to beat all the traffic. So why not give these union workers which i'm in support of also for all the union workers out there um you know

whether it's a year or two years or three years you know development let them be here local so they can spend more time with their families spend more time with their kids you know saturdays and sundays spend time with your family you know why not give that to them yes they're going to move on later on to a different project far away but at least they can say hey you know what i got to spend time with my family and my kids and enjoy that time because once we miss that we won't get it back so I'm all in for this project and thank you Regina Flores Maribel Cota

Joe Lopez go ahead please my name is Regina Flores I was born a mic down a

bit Regina Flores born and raised in Santa Ana you need they complain a lot about the transportation. I'm a bus driver. There's a lot of different routes that go through here. We got the train right here. You know, we need housing. We need housing over here. You know, these people are worried about where they're going to park their car. My house has a three car parking in front of it. I have a garage, you know. They own the house, not the street, not the block, you know. So we need housing. You guys really need to think about it. It'll be a blessing to a lot of families this goes through. Thank you. Thank you. Renee Figueroa.

Hello, my name is Mary Browkota and I'm apartment manager here at Town Square in the city of Santa Ana. I am for the project and the reason is because I constantly have to turn families down almost every day because there is never any vacancies. The complex that I manage is 318 units and I still don't have availability for the families that come into my office. I understand the concerns about more people in the neighborhood, but someone had to make the sacrifice for you to be in the home you are living in. Now it's your time to make a sacrifice for others. I stand here

as a voice for those families that cannot find a place to live. Just as the residents of Park Santiago dream to live in Santa Ana there are others who dreams stand in your decision today I urge you to please vote yes on this project thank you Arthur Lerma Arthur Lerma and then William council my name is Renee Figueroa as one right before that oh I had mayor and council members I have for this project I am a middle-aged professional worker looking to support the union jobs. In this town, I believe we should keep the jobs for more revenues for our city.

With this place, this place even sounds like I'd want to start a new family for myself to keep the revenues in this city and for the people, for the local businesses. And that's why I'm for this, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Arthur.

Followed by William and then followed by Danielle, no last names. My name is Arthur Lerma and Santa Ana needs these homes for the poor people and they need to put the union workers to work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

William, no last name. Danielle, no last name.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. Thank you for bearing with all of us this evening. My name is William Archie. I live in Park Santiago for six years. The care and love that the local community has for the area is astounding and apparent. They are for families. They are for jobs. They are for current and new neighbors. They are for Santa Ana. Earlier this evening, just a few short hours ago, the invocation by the chaplain asked that we would have wisdom for tonight. We, as Park San Diego residents, are just asking for wisdom with a project like this where there seems to be a lot lacking.

So I urge you to vote no on this project. Thank you. Thank you, Danielle.

Julie Tomlinson.

Joseph Torres. Go ahead.

Good evening and thank you. I am a first-time homeowner in Park Santiago, and I'll spare you the personal stories of the sacrifices that it took me to earn that privilege as a single woman, getting my own education, so that I could own a piece of the American dream. But what I won't spare you is to say that if you think I or any of my neighbors have worked this hard to roll over now, you would be mistaken.

This is not the location for this project. History shows high-density housing erodes a neighborhood, and these neighborhoods are the glue of a city that make it valuable and desirable and hold the city together. My name is Julie Tomlinson, and I live and work in Santa Ana. And I hope after tonight I can remain doing so proudly and say that my elected officials fulfilled their oath and represented my and my neighbors' voices in voting no against this project. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Thank you, Joseph Torres.

Followed by Arlene.

Deborah Dalton.

Terry Casey.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, City Council. My name is Terry Casey. I was born in the city of Santa Ana 55 years ago. I attended Jackson Elementary, Immaculate Heart of Mary School, and Mater Dei High School. I've been lucky to be a resident of the Park San Diego neighborhood now, going on two years with my wife and two children. This development is flat out wrong for this location, for all the reasons my fellow residents have stayed at ad nauseum this evening. The traffic, the parking, the high density, the height, etc. That is precisely why this lot is not zoned for this particular use.

Our own planning commission has voted this project down. I was raised by an immigrant union carpenter and I've been a construction management professional for decades. All the major publications from the Wall Street Journal to the OC Business Journal and government studies plus my own professional experience of late confirm that there is in fact a tremendous shortage of skilled construction labor in the U.S. today. The outside groups that are coming and speaking here today in support of this blight on our neighborhood are just plain wrong in their assertion that any short-term jobs that would be generated are much needed.

To me, they have no standing to weigh in on any matter before this body tonight.

I respectfully urge you to perform the duty you swore an oath to perform and honestly represent the residents who elected you. Please look out for the residents' best interests, not the outside interests that have deep pockets. Join with your neighbors, your community, and your planning commission, and vote no on this project. Thank you.

Raquel Casey, followed by Steve Switek, SWITSK.

Good evening. My name is Raquel Casey.

Bring it down a little more.

Good evening. My name is Raquel Casey, and I'm a resident of Parks, Santiago, and I strongly oppose the project.

Thank you. Steve.

Followed by Stephen Dubicas.

You did well on the name, Swytak. Thank you. I'm Steve Swytak, and I'm speaking for myself and my wife and our family, and we've owned on 802 Grovemont for 46 years, and we live there, and we've enjoyed our stay here. Some time ago, maybe 30 years ago, under the leadership of Gordon Bricken, there was a traffic study performed, and as a result, Santiago was closed at the creek.

And can you imagine what would happen had Santiago remained open? We'd probably have a four-lane expressway going from 17th to Orange. Well, the traffic measures implemented had as its underpinning an acknowledgement that traffic can kill a neighborhood. and indeed the traffic that will be generated by this development will be routed through our development, through our neighborhood, because there's no other way to get out.

You would have to be blind to believe in the EIR and what it says as being an absence of impact as a result of the traffic generated. the conclusion by Selena Kelleher and Vince Fergoso is that quote this project will contribute toward the improvement of the character of the northern section of the city and the enhancement of the area now that must have been written for them by the developer because anybody who has looked at the neighborhood and the

probable impact of this development will say that is totally false. Your own staff are just reading what the developer has asked them to present. And I think the people who have spoken on behalf of the residents know that this project will create so much traffic, it will kill this beautiful flower that is the north segment of Santa Ana. Thank you. Thank you, Joe Lopez.

Good evening, Mayor, Council people, members. My name is Joe Lopez, and I lived in, I live in Park Santiago for the last 25 years, and I just wanted to say that I'm opposed to this project. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Steven Dubicas.

Mr. Mayor, Council, my name is Steve Dubicas. I live in Floral Park across from Park Santiago, which I consider pretty much a continuation of Floral Park. I lived there for seven years, and when I moved there, my friends all said, why would you want to move to Santa Ana? Place is a dump. That's the armpit of Orange County. And then they came and visited the neighborhood, and they're like, wow, this is amazing. I never knew this was in Santa Ana. And I think that's part of the problem, is that people aren't really aware of Santa Ana and how great it really is in the neighborhoods.

And as you've seen, there's been hundreds of people here that have come to talk about their neighborhood. and you've seen a few other people that have been paid to show up and talk about how great, you know, we need or how we need more housing, we need construction work for two years and what have you. But I can tell you there's stack shacks and Lego lodging being built everywhere in Orange County and it's really not promoting the city.

So I believe that we need to keep and promote these rich areas of Santa Ana and not impose on them and constrict their livelihood. And that's basically all I'd like to say. Thank you.

Thank you. Miguel Ortiz.

Followed by William Rogers.

Hello Mayor Pulido, City Council. My name is Miguel Ortiz. I was born in Santa Ana. I've lived my whole life here and I am a Parks and Recall resident for the last 10 years. I love my neighborhood. I love Santa Ana. I'm proud to say that I'm a resident of Santa Ana.

Since we found out about this project, we had a neighborhood meeting, about 200 people. I opposed it then. Then we went to the Sunshine meeting. We had about 400 people. I opposed it then. Then we went to the Planning City Commission meeting. We had about 500 people. I opposed it then. And now the last two meetings, about 1,000 people, and I still opposed it for a couple of reasons. One, it's too dense. It's too big. it's out of place and it requires special zoning approval to get it changed. Park Santiago said single unit housing and it would be nice to keep it that way. It's too big just to be

it's going to be part of the neighborhood, it doesn't belong there. To go back to the planning commission midi the staff report said that they had to dig deep into their bag of tricks to find a special rezoning code to get it approved. But something really important happened during the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission that is a part of the City Council and that you guys voted for denied the project. So they were smart enough to realize that it was not good for the City of Santa Ana. So once again, I urge you to vote like the Planning City Commission did. And as a voter of the City of Santa Ana, I oppose this project.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, City Council, my name is William Rogers. I live at 801 Grovemont. My wife and I have lived there for 15 years. I grew up in Santa Ana. I attended Santiago, Willard, Santa Ana High School. Moved away for a while. And when our jobs took us back to Santa Ana, we asked a realtor, anywhere but Santa Ana.

Then he took us to Park Santiago neighborhood. We instantly fell in love with that neighborhood. I grew up with friends in that neighborhood and am proud to live there. I urge you to vote against this project. Thank you. Thank you.

Thomas Frazier.

And then Kitty Canada.

Good evening, Mayor and Council folks. My name is Tom Frazier. I've been a Park Santiago resident for 28 years. I've been through schools in San Diana from kindergarten all the way through two years at San Diana College. Also been a member of the South Coast Air Quality Management District for 29 years, okay, and a proud Teamster member for 25 years, and Union Steward for eight years.

And I'm here to say to all my sisters and brother union members, I'm for you, I'm pro-union, I'm pro-worker, but this project is the wrong project at the wrong place. There's plenty of other places in the city that this can be built on. And Miguel, I know you're a pro-air advocate, pretty much environmentalist. You've done a lot for the city, putting in a lot of solar energy projects. And I'm kind of surprised that maybe you are aware, but this project has gone this far

because as someone previously said, the California Resources Board, as well as our district, has made strong recommendations, no rules, but strong recommendations not to build residences within a thousand feet of a freeway. Hello, Highway 5. Okay? There's a lot better places to build projects like this that are more friendly for commuters. We had a bus driver up here. that location at 17th and Garand you have the 60 bus route going east west you have the believe

it's the 56 going north south you're a mile away from the train station and probably less than that from the light rail system that's going in so I strongly oppose this project I'm for development but not here. Thank you Kitty.

Fought by I believe it's Fernando Lopez.

Good evening my name is Kitty Canada and I did not prepare to speak this evening however I want to go on record opposing this project for all the reasons that my Santa Ana residents have mentioned. I've lived there 21 years

ditto to everything that they've said and please do the right decision and vote no this evening. And I'm cold and I'm tired and I'm hungry and I'm sure you guys are too so just vote no and I'm green.

All right about the fourth green speaker Mr. Lopez followed by Julie Alexander.

Hello, good evening, Mr. Mayor, City Council. My name is Fernando. Thank you for letting me voice my opinion today. Honestly, I believe that Edmonton would be a great project to bring to the city. I mean, it's better than an office building being there. More housing, great living. I even heard they're going to provide patrol. That already makes the neighborhood a safer place for our families. We also got to think about the generation of the kids today, the college kids, the ones growing up and want a place to stay near the campus.

I do think that it would generate significant revenue for the city, more customers for your business, more jobs for the people, recruit more police. I do vote for the project and I hope you make the right decision today. Thank you. Thank you.

Julie.

Followed by Brett Franklin.

After Brett, we're going to have Sam Sanchez.

Welcome, Brett. Mr. Mayor, esteemed members of the City Council, thank you for this time. It's my first council meeting in 15 years, and I forgot how much fun that can be.

I was a longtime resident of Park Santiago on Catalina Street and now live in West Floral Park. but my brother and his six kids live there and so I'm very aware of traffic and other issues there. I come to this from kind of a historic perspective and my issue is not with apartments but with the high density apartments and also the misuse of the word luxury. When I went to Willard Intermediate, junior high then, they began to buy churches and single family homes and build high density apartments and they were sold as luxury. There were schematics and drawings of workout rooms and garden terraces and balconies with fancy furniture.

And we were told that city workers were going to walk from Willard neighborhood to those apartments. And I can tell you now, while you've done a great job cleaning it up and the school itself is beautiful, that if you talk to anybody in those formerly luxury apartments, they'd like to get into something lower density, preferably a single family home even if it was renting or something smaller. When I graduated from Santa Ana High across the street at First and Flower they tore down a lot of homes and they built condominiums and those were also sold as luxury.

We were told that judges and lawyers were going to walk from the Civic Center down there and if you talk to our officers they can tell you that it's a problem for crime there now and it's certainly far from luxury. The developers primarily have come into Santa Ana over the years, most of them from Beverly Hills or Newport Beach and Linda Isle, and they've got lovely homes and lovely neighborhoods. And my experience has been that while there's some great projects, and I don't mean to impugn all developers, they see us as an easy mark. They believe that Santa Ana residents are dumb or we don't care

or we'll passively stand by and allow anything to do. We should be thankful. I've heard that from developers. You're lucky that we're even here, even considering building it. your city. And I know that none of you feel that way. And that's why you're on the city council and why you've held the job as mayor. And I've never seen a group of residents so unified. Normally things are split, but I really see the light. Anyway, thank you for your time. God bless you all. And I really hope that you'll hear what's been said and stand up with the residents. Thank you. Thank you, Brett.

Sam Sanchez followed by Flor Tena. Good evening my name is Sam Sanchez I've lived in Santiago Park for 20 years along with my parents and my two brothers we pretty much grew up in Santa Ana we all own homes here we moved into this neighborhood because of its unique personality when I bought my own home The real estate agent actually warned me that the seller primarily was interested in selling to someone that would fit the neighborhood. They weren't worried about the money. She loved us. She loved our story. And it's why I'm here. It's why this unique neighborhood is still here.

I live on Spurgeon Street. My six-foot backyard wall is going to share space with this monstrosity. We're basically going to lose public parkland with this project. and many of us are going to lose privacy. I'm not opposed to the development of the space. I welcome it. I'm opposed to development of this high-density monstrosity. Instead, why don't we build something more meaningful, something more lasting, something more fitting that adds value. Townhomes, single-family homes, restaurants, tutoring, daycare centers, sports centers, dance studios, a museum or center for the arts.

We all need this. So once again, I advise that this project be scrapped in favor of something more meaningful. I love Santiago Park. My family loves Santiago Park. We long-standing residents love Santiago Park. It's why we are all here. Please don't destroy this. Thank you.

Flor, Tina, Marcela, please go ahead. O'Sullivan next.

Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, City Councilmembers. My name is Flor Barajastena, and I am a homeowner in Park Santiago. I live in Valencia. And I actually chose to live in Santana. I looked at a lot of cities. And one of the reasons why I chose to live in Santana was because of its diversity. But I'm also raising a family. And I wanted to ensure that I was able to live in a pedestrian friendly, I should say that I'm opposing this project first. I wanted to live in a pedestrian friendly neighborhood and I believe that that is a question that I am raising

is that Park Santiago shouldn't only be the only neighborhood that is pedestrian friendly where we can raise our kids. All of the children in Santana should have a place to live. It shouldn't just be my kids or the kids of Park Santiago. So you as a planning body have a lot of power over zoning laws, and you need to use that power wisely. Zoning changes are massive subsidies for developers. However, this developer is not required to provide any community benefits to Park Santiago or to the residents of Santana at large.

When you have, because there is no requirement on the developer to do any community benefits for the cities, we need explicit requirements.

This development, for example, wouldn't provide deep affordability. It's just going to provide market rate housing. So folks who think that they can live in this project actually will not be able to live in this project unless there are explicit requirements on the developer to require that, including for the construction jobs. We're talking about local hire. If there are no explicit requirements around local hire, for example, the developer and the construction and the general contractor can hire out from L.A. County, from Kern County. So this really isn't about a NIMBY versus YIMBY issue.

This isn't about apartment owners versus home owners. this really is about having a well-planned city. And so I am asking you as a policymaking body that you need to ensure that there is equitable development in the city of Santana. That's not just about this project, but that we look at things comprehensively when we are making decisions around development.

Thank you. You become red.

So I oppose this project and I ask you respectfully to also vote against this project. Thank you.

Thank you. Marcela O'Sullivan. Followed by William Archie. Marcela O'Sullivan is not here I would assume. William Archie. Joni Archie. Followed by Yvonne Pittman. Go ahead.

Good evening. My name is Joni Archie. I'm a resident of Santiago Park for six years, and I oppose this project. I urge you to do the same.

Thank you. Yvonne Pittman, followed by Eric Vizmontas.

Hi, good evening. My name is Yvonne Pittman, and I've lived in Park Santiago for 24 years. it is the first home that I bought after I got married and I hope I get to retire in that home but I don't want to see my neighborhood congested with a lot of cars from this development so I plead you to please vote no on this project. Thank you.

Eric followed by Lindsay Thompson

Good evening. How are you guys doing? Hope you're having as much fun as we are. I'm an eight-year resident of Park Santiago, a 19-year music teacher in Santa Ana. By the way, thank you, Ceci, for your support while you're in the school board. We appreciate it. And a 34-year member of the Santa Ana community ever since I joined Santa Ana Wins in 1985. It should be clear to you now that the residents of Park Santiago care about their neighborhood and the greater Santa Ana community. We understand the changing housing needs of the region, but this is a counterintuitive location to build.

Tonight, the members of Park Santa Ana have expressed themselves in a positive, thoughtful manner, so I needn't add to the long list of concerns regarding the proposed rezoning. In short, on behalf of my wife, daughter, neighbors that could not attend tonight, Archie, Aaron, David, and Katie, I oppose the rezoning of 25 North Main Street. Please follow the recommendation of the Planning Commission. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration.

Lindsey, Eric Bastimas followed by Lindsey Thompson. Go ahead, go ahead, Eric.

I'm Lindsey.

Oh, well, go ahead, Lindsey. And then Tim Basalone.

Yeah, thank you. My name is Lindsey Thompson. Six years ago, my wife and I decided to downsize after raising our children, and we're looking at buying a vintage property. We looked in Brea. We looked in Fullerton. We looked in Anaheim. We looked in Yorba Linda. We looked in Orange. A listing came up in Santa Ana. I was out here in business doing a lot of driving around. I thought, I'll take a look at it. Went into the neighborhood. The house was too small, but as I drove around the neighborhood and parked Santiago, I was amazed. The big trees, the streets, the vintage properties, the community feel that it had blew me away.

It was something I didn't even know existed in the middle of Orange County. It was a slice of middle America in the middle of Orange County in this big metropolis.

We bought the home six years ago. We've been grateful residents of Santa Ana, something I never thought I would do or be, and really grateful to do that. I understand a developer has an obligation to get the highest and best use out of their property. and I appreciate the fact that this developer wants to get the highest and best use. The project, as is proposed, is probably the highest use of this property, but this is absolutely not the best use for this property. I would ask you to oppose this property for the density, for the traffic and congestion, and everything else that's been talked about before.

So again, respectfully ask you to vote no on this property.

Thank you, sir. Next speaker is Tim Bassalone, followed by Camilo, number 192.

Good evening, Council Members. I know earlier the Mayor mentioned a prize for keeping it short, and if that prize is a no vote, then I will cut it off right now. I'm kidding. My name is Tim Bassalone. and I live in the Park San Diego neighborhood with my wife and two children, and I oppose the project. I am tired, and I'm sure all of you are tired too, so I will keep it short. I oppose the project for all of the reasons that my neighbors and the Planning Commission have already stated so well. The project's too big, it's too dense, it doesn't fit the area.

I urge you to follow the advice of the Planning Commission and the 3,000 plus voting residents of Park Santiago and vote no on this project. Thank you.

Thank you, Camila Sorenstein.

Followed by Eddie Sanchez.

And just to let you know, I'm at 192. You're close to being done.

Thank you for listening to all of us. I have been in Santa Ana for 56 years and living in Park Santiago for 23. It's a great community. However, this particular project is, for all the reasons stated before, is just too much. and I'm opposed to it. I'm opposed to the rezoning and I hope that you agree too. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Eddie Sanchez followed by Lori Horton.

Good evening. I'm a member of Local 652 and I support this project. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Lori Horton, followed by Gustavo Godinez.

Hi, my name is Lori Horton, and I have a little different perspective. I'm a new resident in the area here, in Floral Park. And I've rented for two years in a luxury apartment after we sold our home in San Diego. and the turnover in a luxury apartment in our building, our complex, and the complex next to us, two very large, beautiful complexes in Costa Mesa, the turnover is extremely high. It's very quick. People get in and they get right out. They do not stay. In the two years that we're there, we met a lot of people because they had a dog park and they were gone.

So that is something to consider with a project like this. Also, being new to this area, I see Santa Ana with a different vision. I see Santa Ana as a beautiful place that you guys have done a tremendous job of renovating. We would come up from Costa Mesa to eat dinner in Santa Ana because it was so special. I encourage you, you see something in this, that you see that there is a redevelopment need, that there is a replanning need, that you need to re-look at your plans. look at them, step back from this project, which is clearly not right, revisit your planning, and come up with a good community plan for the future,

but step back from this one. Thank you.

Thank you, Gustavo Godinez,

followed by Angelica Lopez.

That's Angelina Lopez. Honorable Mayor, members of the council, thank you for giving us this opportunity to address you on this important matter. For just a quick moment, some of you that haven't been on the council for very long, I don't know if you've ever seen this amount of passion from a neighborhood seeking answers to finding a good solution to housing. I'm opposed to this project. I've been a Santa Ana resident for 27 years. I live in Park Santiago as well.

I've been very involved in the community from PTA president, Little League, youth football, scouts, Segerstrom Parent of the Year. I care about this community. I care about the future, and I care about the residents. I want to just echo Mr. Richardson's and Mr. Franklin's concerns about this type of project. it seems a little confusing to me why the planning commission can vote one way and you can vote another and then it happens. I don't understand that. As a voting member of the community, it's kind of confusing to us, but it is what it is and I'm sure it will all get figured out. Do not want the rezoning.

The developer really should consider other locations. There's so many pockets of areas in our community that could be developed, that could be improved, instead of going after an office building that could turn into a really fabulous office environment.

That's all I have to say. Please vote against this.

Thank you.

Mark Trimble. And we're down to two.

I don't know if Mark's not here then Robert no I meant to after after a mark Robert Gallardo I believe

Okay, I didn't write anything down because I didn't think I was going to talk tonight. That's why I'm number 200. So anyway, I've been a resident of Santiago Park for 10 years. And to give you an idea of where my head's at, I was a law enforcement officer for 28 years. And before I moved into my house, I literally went over there several times on the street that I was going to live at, and I parked myself at the corner to see what kind of activity would be happening in that area because if there were gangs or any kind of major problems there, I wasn't going to move there. I found it as being a nice, quiet street, and we moved there.

The issue that I'm looking at has to do with the crime impact when you increase the population in a community. Obviously, you're going to be doubling the population here by adding these 475 homes, which, again, is going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand more people. Now, not all those people that are going to be moving in are going to be nice people, right? Some of them are going to have a tendency to commit crime. One of the big crimes that a lot of them have a tendency to do is burglary.

And we see our weekly news bulletin that's always talking about burglaries in our area. Now, we also know that you live in a state that burglars are not sent to prison because it's a nonviolent offense. Right? If anything, they get probation. What's that mean? They get to see a probation officer once a month. So there's no consequence to them committing burglaries. And that's the only thing that I have to look at. I also was told that we're going to be a little safe because they're going to hire a security company to go around the building.

Well, here's the thing. I'm 70 years old. I can get a job as a security guard. Okay? And if I saw something going on, I'd do like everybody else here, I'd get on the phone and dial 911. because most security guards can't carry firearms. And when you call up 911, you're going to be looking at your watch. How long is it going to take for a uniform officer to respond?

Thank you. That's right. Thank you.

Well, Johnny Carson used to say, I've got the last card. I think it was Karnak the Magician or something. I don't know if PJ Bollinger is here or not, but I see people around. If not, then Robert was a minute. He is here.

Thank you, Mayor. My name is PJ Bollinger and I was a police officer here for about 25 years. And I'd like to talk about the crime that used to be here before development, before investment in this city. You can go down to 4th Street. It was chaos.

We probably had about 100 murders every year. 100 homicides in the 80s, 90s. and the only thing that fixed it was development and spending money in the city, the infrastructure, building new apartment complexes, building new shopping centers, allowing people to flourish in the capitalistic society that we live in. And that's what I don't understand about this objection. Everybody seems to be capitalists, but nobody wants to live by those rules.

So it's kind of hard to figure out when a few ranchers owned Santa Ana or controlled the territory,

and they wanted to build houses 40 or 50 years ago, and the ranchers let them build houses. If these people were the ranchers, they wouldn't be in their houses now. So it's kind of comical that they're objecting to other people being as happy as they are. I don't understand it.

Yes? No?

Okay. Second, first of all, most of the people I believe that are opposing this are Republicans.

And once again, if they objected back 40 or 50 years ago, they wouldn't be in their own homes. So, I want to repeat that. And lastly, the elephant in the room, I noticed that almost, and I can say it, I guess, because I'm a white guy, almost everybody that objected here is white.

PJ, the light's gone red. Thank you. Thank you.

and with that um madam clerk i'm going to close the public hearing on this matter madam city attorney i'm going to close the public hearing on this matter okay so the public hearing is now closed and i'm going to bring it to council for questions and discussion and consideration. Does anybody want to start?

Does this have you a question?

Go ahead. Go ahead, Council Member Iglesias, if you'd like to go. I am, but I don't know if you need a question.

Okay, so I just want to thank everyone for taking the time and being here, seeing that this is a very important issue that we are going to be voting on. I truly appreciate everybody's comments and concerns that have been expressed. A lot of information was shared. A lot of emotions came out.

and I just for the last gentleman that said it's only Republicans you just struck a nerve with me

I am a registered Republican and you know it's doing the right thing for people, it's not about party it's about doing the right thing for people

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and it's not about the color of your skin

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applause applause I just hope next time you come you come prepared to speak and talk to us here because that's what you just said it's just so wrong and that's the reason why a lot of things are happening here in Santa Ana because individuals like yourself are dividing our community

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So with that said, I do have a couple of questions for staff that I would like to ask and have some clarification on. So I don't know if Min or who's going to come up here, so address.

So you'll address from here? Okay. This is just different. Okay. So, okay. I think it's better if you come here because I'm kind of like looking this way.

So one of the things that I did, as you know, I represent, well, I was a voted at large, but I was given the opportunity to run for city council Ward 6. So I'm in Ward 6. I'm on the west end of Santa Ana. But one thing I did on, actually it was Super Bowl Sunday, that I said, you know, I was reading these, the EIR, I was reading the information that staff gave to us. And I said, you know what, I've met and I did meet with the developer, Mr. Golnick, and also I met with some of the, from the community members from Park Santiago.

But I wanted to hear from the individuals and the neighbors that live behind the proposed development. And when I met with them, and it was Super Bowl Sunday, so for those of you who opened the door, I am very appreciative. Thank you, Mr. Chapman, for opening your door. You're welcome.

So one thing I asked them is, you know, I want to hear from you directly. I want you to tell me what's one thing that really you oppose about this project. And the things that I heard from them was, you know, we're not opposed to development. We're not opposed to someone coming in here and getting this building out of the condition that it is. But we are opposed to this dense, dense project. So what they want is reasonable development. And I believe I asked you at the last meeting, how many stories is this building?

So we can have it on record. How many stories is it? Because I hear five, I hear six, but then when I hear the parking structure, it's like eight. So what's really the number?

Let's first discuss it in terms of height. The height of the residential building to the top is at 75 feet, and then the height to the top of the structure is at 95 feet so that is to the top of the various highest point of the building and that is the mezzanine or their loft areas and the there are many two rooms so the building height to the The top of residential, as I mentioned, is 78, and the amenity deck is 95. That is the top of the height.

So 95, how many stories would that be if you were to put it in hundreds of stories?

The average story is about 10 feet if you're looking at a development. So for example, a single family home for two stories because depending on the roof height, can go anywhere between 22 to 25 feet. So the average story is about 10 to 11 feet.

Wow, so then that would be about what, nine stories?

So the parking structure itself is eight stories in height, but that's not the highest point of the structure. As I mentioned, the highest point of the structure is their amenity deck. So that is at 95 feet.

So then the, I guess, this was presented to us by one of the community members. So then if I'm looking at it, it will be almost 10 stories high.

in terms of the equivalent equivalency to and the average height correct then why are we on

our city website putting it as a five-story building so as doing my presentation in terms

of the residential we said that the actual residential is five-story but with the mezzanine and everything else, it's really six stories. And the parking structure is eight stories in height with their many deck. So there are architectural features and there are non-living habitable area that is a part of that. But we did describe that the top to the very top height of the building is 95 feet.

Yeah, but I still find that a little, not a little, I think I find it misleading.

because when you say five stories I mean if I if I have not walked that area if I've not talked to the residents I would think five stories okay you know the past month and a half it's been one of the stress most stressful times of me and being elected and I'm looking around every time I'm driving I'm going okay four stories five stories four stories five stories but I've never really thought about it is actually eight stories. So when I look at an eight stories that is, or nine stories, it's very high. And just to see the impact that it's going to bring to that neighborhood, it's not fair.

So one of the things also that I wanted to ask you was the traffic. I know that the traffic has been an issue and parking has also been an issue that has been brought up by the neighbors.

How, I just can't wrap my head around it. How would you control that it would just be two parking spots per unit? I mean, what guarantees us that they're going to stay there, that there's not going to be an overflow into the neighborhoods?

So the project has been conditioned to provide a capacity of two spaces per unit. The capacity allows the development to look at either providing it through physical space for two vehicles, or to look at other strategies such as valley parking, which is looking at increasing capacity using existing land area, which is a very valid and used in developments in other areas of the state.

But where in Santa Ana do we have something like that?

I don't, I don't, I'm not aware of any in Santa Ana, but it is something that can be used to increase capacity.

If we want to compare apples to apples, I would want to see something that's here in Santa Ana. So you don't have anything that says this is how they do it in another development that we have just recently approved?

Not, this would be one that would be leading the forefront on this.

Okay, so then what I'm hearing, one thing that I'm hearing is that we don't have control on how the parking's going to be controlled. Living on the west end of Santa Ana, I know for a fact our neighborhood gets affected by all the apartments, and they come and park in our neighborhood and then we're left without a parking spot. So with me, that's personal because it's affected me and I can only imagine how it's going to affect them.

And I just, not having something that says that we're going to guarantee kind of doesn't give me an opportunity to feel comfortable.

So what we have incorporated into the project condition of approval is that there are a couple components that are required. One is a parking management plan that requires the development to always provide two parking spaces per unit. That parking management plan is enforceable under contract. It is recorded onto the property and runs with the land. So regardless of who the owner is, that contract stays with the land and has a mechanism for enforcement by the city.

In addition to that, that is coupled with an overcrowding mitigation plan. So that looks at the density of the number of people residing on the site. That as well is a part of the conditions of approval. So together, working those documents becomes legal documents that are enforceable by the city to manage the parking on site. Part of the mechanism that would require is that there's active management by the management company in terms of leasing to maintain and manage parking. This type of development is not a lifestyle for everyone.

It is a lifestyle choice for the residents and tenants there. it is limited parking no doubt it's not a single family home with unlimited potential parking so people that choose to live here and the management that choose the leasing will have to do a good job but is it going to be guaranteed well nothing is guaranteed but it is by contract I have an issue with that

because it's like like how can you put us in a predicament of approving something that is not something that's in writing and is going to be guaranteed.

No, it is in terms of the two spaces per unit. It is in writing and it is going to be

recorded on the deed of the property. That I get, but like enforcing the parking outside of the unit.

Enforcement. What this gives the city the ability to do is to enforce using a contract mechanism, whereas today if you look at existing projects that have been approved, the only means of enforcement is through the process of working with our police department working with the traffic enforcement to address parking where don't get me started with that so that that that is not something that we have

used in the past we don't have the we don't have the officers I mean that's right yeah so it's not gonna happen correct so

So, okay, and another question I have for you, Min, and thank you. Thank you for answering my questions.

You provided to us this, and I believe we got this from one of the residents, but you also provided this to us in our presentation last week. The number of dwelling units for this project, it's being proposed to us as 81 dwelling units per acres, right?

Correct.

Okay. The Heritage, which I believe is also a project by the same developer, is it? Yes, that's correct.

It was entitled by the same developer, correct.

Okay. They have 65 dwelling units per acre. Why the difference?

So why the difference in terms of the...

Of the dwelling units per acre. And my understanding is that the Heritage, it was closer to industrial buildings. It's like an industrial zone. And then you're having 81 dwelling units next to a residential. It's almost what, 16 more?

So is your question why did the developer propose a different density for the project or why just the difference?

No, why the difference that he proposed 65 and also the difference of why we are trying to see going with 81 instead of 65?

So we can, I think it's best that we allow. I can answer that because I was the architect. Okay, that's what I was about to say. No, but not yet. At some point, the applicant is here, so you can ask that question of the applicant later on. But in terms of the density for the development throughout the city, we have different density in different areas. The range that was provided includes density in the mid-40s up to the 90s. So different projects in different areas have different density.

It's not necessarily consistent throughout the city, depending on the housing development location and the intensity of development in the area.

Yeah, but it's a big difference. 65 dwelling units, and if you multiply it by, I think it's 5.93, it's almost like, what, 385 units? Versus what we have right now before us is 476. That's almost 100 units less. at the Heritage, which is a commercial, close to commercial, versus here, it's close to a residential.

So for me, with all due respect to the developer, it's like, why didn't we take that same, I guess, with ratio for a project that is going to be next to homes? Well, when we look at the

development intensity in the area such as Prisma, I think that's at 91

unit to the acre. No, but I'm not talking about Prisma. I'm talking about the heritage.

Prisma is also developed by the same developer as well.

But right there they don't have, I mean it's right across the Santiago Park, so it's not really a residential zoning. It's more apartments and I think we have the shopping center there with Mother's Market and I guess where the old Barnes & Noble is at too. But my question is, and I think maybe I could bring up the developer and ask him.

Sonia R. Carvalho

So if I may, Council Member, and I may ask, if I could indulge, maybe the Mayor Pro Tem could just indulge me for two minutes. If we could just take a tiny break. I think one of the things we didn't do was talk about how we're going to answer your questions. It's very important to answer your questions, and we need to do so in an orderly way because we're making a public record. I cannot have the developer coming up and doing that. So what I'm asking the developer to do is to write down the questions. They will be given an opportunity.

Sonia R. Carvalho

So can we just take two minutes so that I can talk with them real clearly to make sure how we're going to establish this record? You guys can stay there. It'll be very quick.

If you want two minutes, why don't we go to the bathroom and come back as fast as we can? Thank you. So a little five-minute break. Go to the bathroom fast.

when they went to paradise and they went off.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I love you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I I I I I I I I I I Now what will you forget, if I just want you to love your love?

It's the love that tells me that I'll follow you

I want to give you all the time, give me your forgiveness Yo no sé de amar, corazón

Yo sí sé de amar, sí sé de amar Corazón, corazón

You fly in the bek След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След След

I'm sorry.

¿Para qué vas a seguir?

Entiéndeme, yo te amo. And fight for a life that is worth the price That's love, I understand And I have love, I have love I have more than that I have love, I want to give you everything

All right. If we can get everybody to start sitting down.

If there's people out in the lobby or in the bathroom or whatever, if we can tell them to come back.

As soon as I get four council members up here, I'll reconvene the council meeting.

we have a city manager we have four five council members so we have a city attorney we're ready to go all right so um do we want to just reconvene exactly at the point we were and answer a specific

Sonia R. Carvalho

question or what would we want to answer the question i believe

Go ahead, please. What I wanted to start is to also introduce our team that we have here as city staff as consultant that work on this project. The staff team that we have is our planning staff, consisting of the planning manager, our principal planner, and also one of our senior planners, Selena.

Oh, okay. The environmental and also our legal team on this, the environmental consultant is Renee Escario with RE Consulting. And Jennifer Lynch with Besbeson Krieger provided our legal review on this. From a public works agency, we have our traffic and transportation review team, Willem Galvez, Taye Higgins, Zed Kalula, and Ruben Castaneda. So that is our team.

And I can direct any questions to our team as you question, if you have them.

So just going back to the question that I had was with the dwelling units per acreage. The heritage is 65 dwelling units per acreage, right? And then this proposed one here on 2525, it's coming before us as 81 dwelling units per acreage. And I just want to hear from, I guess, staff to see why would we even consider bringing something to us here at the council

with that big of a difference in dwelling units per acreage, knowing that it's on a residential zoning rather than commercial.

So I have our CEQA consultant who did the environment analysis on the project, but she also happened to work on the heritage project as well and can answer the question regarding the density difference between the two projects.

Hi, good evening. My name is Renee Ascario. I'm with RE Consulting. I work for the city. I'm on the city's list of qualified consultants. I happen to work on this project. I also happen to work on the Heritage Project also. There's a difference between the Heritage Project and this project. The Heritage Project was a mixed-use project. It contained, off the top of my head, I don't know how many thousand square feet of commercial uses, and it also included a two-story office building.

So the density was mixed between residential units, I forgot how many per acre 55 he said, and the density, the floor area ratio density of the retail and the office building. So it is actually a much more denser project than just the 55 dwelling units per acre.

But it's a bigger property, isn't it, at the Heritage? I think it's, what, 18 acres? How many acres is it?

Yeah, it was a larger project. I just, I don't have all the details in front of me. I don't have that document with me.

But to look at the overall acreage or the overall density, I think you would have to look at the dwelling units per acre plus the floor area ratio of the commercial and the office building together. other. I can probably pull that up on my phone looking at it if you wanted me to. I just don't have the document with me. I just wanted to clarify. Yeah no thank you for the clarification

but I just I just see the it's I would say like it's just a yin and a yang it's two different projects. And I know it's two different projects but the thing is that you are impacting a neighborhood So for me, it would be wide. It's a lot. 16 units, it's a lot per acres. Okay, so let me take one closer to Santa Ana here on 17th then. On 17th and Harbor, there's the line, right? That has, what, 58 dwelling units per acre? And it's close to residential, right?

Yes, correct.

The line, no, it's on 17th and Harbor. Is that the one on 17th and Harbor?

Correct.

The line, and that's 58 dwelling units per acre.

And why, I'm not against development. And I feel I have the same sentiment as the residents at Park Santiago.

But I just see the density in it. It's just a lot. And I know the traffic study that you guys did shows that there'll be less traffic if we have this proposed project being developed than if we were to keep it as is with the commercial. When was that study done and how can, if somebody can explain it to me on how that would work. that would have less trips? If it's a residential, then it would be a commercial. I don't know who would be the person that would be able to explain that a little bit better.

Yes, so we have our traffic team here. Willem Galvez will come up and help assist with that question.

But essentially what the traffic study is, is study the existing office building. Based on the square footage of the current building, there is a traffic generation rate that is used to analyze, and that has a lower trip count than the proposed housing project. The proposed housing project has about 2,800 trips generated if it was to be approved. However, the existing site also allowed for 380,000 square foot office buildings,

So if you apply the traffic rate for office parking, that would be, I believe, around 3,800 traffic trips, which is higher than what the project would generate.

I'm not getting it.

Okay. Go for it.

We evaluated the, so, okay, for any EIR, CEQA requires you to evaluate alternatives to the project, the no project alternative. In this EIR, we looked at the reduced project alternative, and we looked at build out of the parcel under the existing zoning and at maximum build out of the floor ratio that's allowed under the zoning, how many trips would that result in?

Under the IT, land use code, which is the IT, International Transportation Engineer, sorry, too many acronyms.

under a professional office use under existing zoning it would be the general office building ITE trip generation rate so that would generate more trips because the maximum build out is 380,000 square feet so it would generate 3,744 trips per day, daily trips based on the maximum square footage of the building answering your question?

The building that we have right now?

Yes. Oh, the existing building.

The existing building, yes.

The existing building using the same trip generation rates would result in 791 trips per day using the same ITE rate. 94 of those trips would be in the AM peak hour and 94 would be in the PM peak hour. Both coming and going. So there were actually 81 in trips in the AM peak hour, 13 out trips in the AM peak hour, which totals 94 under the existing building, if that building were reoccupied.

So it's only 791.

791 daily trips, trips per day. Versus? The proposed project. 2000. Is 2,698. We should also talk about AM and PM peak hours, because that's really where the residents have been complaining where the traffic is, not the daily hour. It's the AM and PM peak hour. The trip generation rates are...

I wouldn't call it complaining. I think they're concerned.

Concerned. Well, those are the comments. I'm sorry, the comments. The proposed project would generate 179 AM peak hour trips, and the existing building would be 94 AM peak hour trips. In the PM, the proposed project would generate 219 PM peak hour trips, and the existing building reoccupation would be 94 PM peak hour trips.

So then to address the traffic issue, then leaving the site as an existing office would be the best alternative? I mean, looking at the number 791.

Reoccupation of the existing building.

Because it's 81,000 square feet. Or 82,000 square feet if you round up.

Okay, well, thank you.

We've also looked at and build out, demolish the existing building and redevelop of that site, too, which is also provided on the screen. It's the third one. And I'm looking at it. Okay.

But it's the concerns that the residents have. And from the beginning, the questions that I've had for both the residents and also for the developer was, have you all had an honest conversation about this project? And just hearing from the residents, it seems like there's been a lot of miscommunication. And one thing that I'm very, I would say, concerned. I respect the developer and I know he's doing a lot of good things here in Santa Ana.

And I want to thank him publicly for him helping us get the link going, the homeless shelter. And there has to be this opportunity for us to be able to work together. So just hearing that there's just some things that are not adding up, right now I am not comfortable with the information that you're giving us.

Thank you.

And if you guys have followed me through when I was on the school board, one thing is when something comes before us for voting, I like to have something that is a complete thing, because then you put us in a predicament. If we don't have the complete project or we don't have all the questions answered, I'm usually, I always err on the side of caution. And I vote no, because I think we could be putting our city in a liability, and I believe we're putting our residents in a situation that is going to be permanent.

So one thing that I've always brought near and true to my heart is always about putting the constituents that we serve first. I know with my running for city council, one of the things was listen to the community, listen to the residents and put them first. So right now, I don't know if anybody else has any other questions, but I would like to hear from them. But at this point, I just, the way that it's been presented, I just, it just seems so dense. It's so dense and it's something that is going to affect the families.

and especially the 11 oh and there's one thing I wanted to share I know there's a lot of emotions going on with this vote it's just you know people pretty much just saying more than what they're supposed to because you know it's something that's very personal to both the developer and also to the residents but what I want to say is for those neighbors that I spoke to that live on Spurgeon Street that you guys invited me to come inside your house and be in your backyard and kind of see you know envision this thing in my backyard it's something that is

for those of you here on the council if you guys didn't you know you haven't had an opportunity to do that I would encourage you to do that because it does really change the perspective it changes the perspective on how things are going to be and this project is a beautiful project and I know I've expressed this with the developer. It's nice. It's going to bring a lot of revenue to the city, a lot of different

amenities, and also a lot of concessions that the developer has given. And the park Santiago, I know it needs, it needs not the neighborhood association, but the park itself, Santiago Park, it needs a lot of TLC. It's very It's very, oh my gosh, the state that it is is very sad. And I know that this would bring revenue for us to do something to that park.

But with that said, I'm hoping that we can have a more sensible project that maybe after everybody here on the dais, my colleagues have questions. we can talk about how we can give it an opportunity for a true, true, true conversation. To have the developer and the residents come up with a project that we're all going to be able to live with. I want it to be a win-win situation.

So with that said, I don't know if any of you guys have any questions. Okay, so thank you.

Councilman Vince Sarmiento.

I guess I'm going to speak out of order. I thought I was going to wait and listen to some more comments, but I'll go ahead and make mine. I wanted to start by thanking everybody who came to spoke, both in favor and against. I know that these have been two meetings and two nights that, unfortunately, have been very cold as well. So for those of you that were outside, we certainly apologize. I wish we would have gotten a larger venue for everybody to be under one roof. That would have been good forethought on our part.

I do want to thank our staff because for as maybe clumsy as this looks like, there was a lot of work that was put into the presentation and a lot of work by you residents to counter arguments to what was presented for you both in the environmental document, in the design and the conceptuals of this project. But this has been going on since 2017, I believe, since the latter part of 2017. So there certainly has been a tremendous amount of investment from everybody. And I don't recall seeing this much interest in one issue that we've had to deliberate on.

So I want to thank the applicant as well, because I think as somebody said, the great thing about Santa Ana is people want to be here. You as residents want to own your home, want to be not disturbed and left to live the quality of life that all of you expect. And I think there's also, fortunately, interest from the private sector to come in here and invest in the community as well. So the difficult job for all of us is to make sure that we balance everybody's interest. And even though this has gotten a lot of attention and we've had a lot of discussion and there's been long meetings,

this is no different than some of the meetings that we've had on some other very sensitive issues, like where to place a homeless shelter. If all of you will recall, when the county was looking at placing a shelter before the link was developed, they looked at a site on Garnsey off of Grand Avenue, which was right adjacent to a multifamily neighborhood called Cornerstone Mini. very low-income neighborhood not many no homeowners just a lot of tenants and renters but a lot of families and you know I don't recall there being as much interest when that was happening unfortunately and it was right by

Kennedy Elementary School and luckily there was enough interest by the neighbors that they started getting the attention of the county and I know some Some of us spoke up very loudly and said it isn't the right place. That was a severe, severe impact. Not saying that this one is any less, but that one was a different one. Just like the chrome plating plants that are being proposed near Madison Park Elementary School and Madison Park neighborhood. So we have a lot of these issues where you introduce, unfortunately, incompatible uses right up against residential neighborhoods. You have the same thing in Delhi.

There was a power plant that was being proposed years ago in the Delhi neighborhood. There wasn't much outpouring of interest, and that was a very difficult decision to support it or not, because we knew we needed the plant, but it was right up against some homes and some schools. And so this unfortunately happens in a city that's as old as ours. There just isn't a good governing document, which is our general plan. It's so antiquated that you have, unfortunately, many incompatibilities throughout the city. One of the things I know that I tried to look at here was what's allowable.

And I think the folks that made the most compelling arguments were the ones that said, not that you don't want anything, but that you want something responsible and something that makes sense. And I think those...

So I get that. that's the more I think you know informed decision because something has to go there it can't be a dormant site it can't be a vacant site you're gonna have homeless you know homeless issues you're gonna have blighted issues so there has to be something that goes there and my question to staff and I think they they responded to me when I asked you know not during the meeting but when we sat down was what's allowable what's allowable right now by right and what what's allowable now is its own professional office and I think the height at the rear setback is it similar or is it different to what's

being proposed now so the height existing now is in the rear half of the site is two stories and what the project is proposing that's closest adjacent to the project site is two story yeah no but I guess what I'm saying what's

allowable not with three stories three okay and what's what's being proposed by

the developer what's being proposed is eight stories of parking and right up

against you know two stories two stories because it as it has a I guess it gradually escalates right as you go further west correct so the height of

the building start to go scale to two story from two story to three stories to four and then five as it moved west to the site. And I do have an image that illustrates that.

Well, go ahead and put it up. And as you're putting it up, I guess, you know, I know somebody said that they walked the neighborhood. Look, I've been walking that neighborhood since I was a kid. I grew up here in Santa Ana when there was, if some of you recall, the old skate ranch across the street before the Discovery Cube. and there was an old furniture store and I forget if it was Wix or if it was Beacons so but I remember going there as well with with my parents so our family arrived in 65 when it was a much different time right and when it was not

main place but it was Sash and Square and so you know I'm very familiar with neighborhood and I know the streets personally so we know that as we're up here making decisions and if you look at the list of the projects that we've been approved and some of those that are being compared to the one before us tonight the other I think it was late last year Madam City Attorney that we that we looked at the Elon and I remember when it was proposed again not Not many people were here for that one, but that one was probably the most dense project that we've approved.

And there was opposition by not folks who were homeowners, but people who were going to be impacted on the south end of that development. So unfortunately things have been done. Your neighborhood is very organized and I applaud you for that. But we have so many gems in the city, not just Park Santiago, but we have, like I said, Logan neighborhood, Delhi, Madison, all those. And when that project was approved, the Elon was approved, it was wrapped in an overlay zone. And we never got to the merits of whether or not it was a good project. And so it's unfortunate that projects come before us like that.

And it got approved. And again, there was people speaking against it, but not a lot of people listening. So here, you do have our attention. So, again, I applaud you for that. What I think we're trying to do is I'm trying to remove sort of the personalities because we talk about the developer is this person. The neighbors have this demographic. Look, what we're poised to do here is to deliberate on a legitimate land use decision. We're not sitting here as an appellate body. We're sitting here as a legislative body. What the Planning Commission did was not something that we are going to overrule or are being appealed to.

They really are an advisory body, if that's the way we have it in our charter, correct, Madam City Attorney? They don't make any final decisions on an EIR, on a development agreement, on a general plan amendment, or a zoning amendment. So those things are first impression for us. They're certainly important for them to advise us on what their opinion is, but we've deviated from their direction often and many times. We've went away from what staffs recommended. But all of you said one thing that I remember hearing. Listen to the experts. Listen to what people say that know this.

And so we've retained consultants that are outside consultants, but we've also had our in-house directors of planning and other departments look at this. And, Mr. Tai, you and your staff and Mr. City Manager, are you guys recommending this project?

The recommendation from staff is for the approval of the project. and as we discussed the Planning Commission recommended against that but we did recommend it for the approval of the project based on the reduction of the units to 476 and some of the changes as well in terms of that's been

incorporated into the project. Right so you recommend it based upon the adjustments, the reduction in height, the reduction in intensity because I think what was originally proposed was 84.

The dwelling unit to the acre? Density, yes. Okay, so what you're at now was 81. 81. The previous to that was 87. Okay, so it was 87, and it was close to 500 units. Right? 496. Okay, let's round up to 500. Correct. So, you know, look, I think that that doesn't make a lot of sense. I think that there could be something that, again, I listened to somebody, it wasn't at this meeting, but the meeting before where they said, there's something that could work there on that corner. And it is on a corridor. One of the things that concerned me was having an ingress and egress on Edgewood, and I think that was resolved and that was removed.

Is there a fire lane there, or is there something that's going to be impacting that street?

The only ingress and egress of a vehicle is reserved for fire lane in an emergency gate that's only accessible by emergency purposes.

So do the residents, can they at all access the property from that?

Not for vehicle access, no.

Okay, so Edgewood's not going to be an ingress or egress point. Yes, correct. One of the things I think that I certainly would like to see, and I think it's not a bad idea for the applicant to consider, is, look, the number 500 is just a very, very big number. And I think to me what I'm worried about is the traffic and the parking. Those are two legitimate land use concerns that I think are inevitable. And if you look at them anywhere, for somebody to say there's an impact, look, there's always an impact. We can't have zero impact. That's why they're mitigating factors, and that's what we're looking at.

How do you mitigate some of these impacts? And that's what we're trying to do, and that's what I think staff has been trying to do with the neighborhood and with the applicant. So is there any way that maybe you can speak with the applicant, whether we recess to do it or not, but maybe to bring that number of units down to maybe 300

something that's manageable, to bring that density per unit per acre down to let's say 70-ish or less?

That's something that would need to be discussed with the applicant directly as well and they are here and we can defer to them to that level of question but absolutely we can discuss that. Because if you look at the ratio

and you look at and you do a mean curve on this and you see where things fall, that is much more manageable and the impact is much more less than having an 84 or an 87 density unit per acre versus a 70 or having 300 units versus 500 units. To me that would be you know that would be something at least in the realm of you know of consideration so I'm not sure if that's something that we can do now or if that's something that you that can be contemplated the applicants here they can you know take out their pencil and see if things work out but those are

some of the concerns I would have any other thoughts or not I could speak and and then we continue. Go ahead, Mayor Brokstown.

Just an observation. Mr. Min, how tall is that building again? 95 feet, you said? Is that the highest?

The highest point of the existing current proposed

is 95 feet. So if I want to stand on the roof of that place, I'm standing at the height of 95 feet? Correct. Okay. And usually on the roof, and I don't know if the applicant has this on there, but usually on the roof they have the HVAC units, right? The heater, air conditioning, because the central air, really nice place. I get that. But if the height is 95 feet, and if we were to look, I sit on the OCFA board, just like my colleague here sat on there for a couple of years. I learned a few things.

And, you know, the highest ladder that we have in Orange County, and we have one here in Santa Ana, is 100 feet. So if you had a fire in the HVAC unit, which is where they usually are when you have to get to it right away, the truck would have to pull up. It has to be 10 feet away so it will be stabilized. The ladder will come out. That's 100 feet. But since it's at an angle, you're going to lose about 10 feet. So you can only do about 70, 85 feet, the maximum height. You're not going to be able to get on the roof. So I checked with the fire authority. They would have to come in, drag all their equipment up.

Average fireman carries about 65 pounds plus all the equipment, tools, that's another 55 pounds. 100 pounds of equipment on a fireman trying to get up to the roof to help take this thing off. Now, if there's a sprinkler system, if there's a sprinkler system, I get it. But I'm talking about the HVAC system. And I don't know, on some buildings they're on top, on some buildings they're on the side. There's just an observation that I had. The height, talk about density, talk about the height, those are one of my concerns. And that's just a quick comment, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.

Go ahead, Council Member Venalosa.

David Penaloza

I just want to say that I agree with what most of my colleagues have said. And I want to follow up with what Council Member Iglesias said with the parking. That's been an issue with me from the beginning. And I just wanted to, so it's currently, it's 2.0 units, I mean parking spaces per unit, correct?

That's the recommendation, correct.

David Penaloza

And that is including the possible valet part of it?

That would be correct. Okay.

David Penaloza

And when it comes to guest parking, how does that play into the project? You know, you have the units, but people have guests over.

So the 2.0 includes guest parking for the project site.

David Penaloza

Okay. now what what steps do that has is the city currently taking with other projects in the city because I know again Councilmember Iglesias has mentioned the parking impact in her neighborhood but it's something that and I agree with it and it's something that we have throughout the whole city you know it's you can't find parking anywhere so I want to know what kind of steps has our city taken currently not possible you know police officers or or whatnot you know but with the projects I know it's in the contract but are we doing anything today where we have actively gone out to current projects

David Penaloza

that are already built and existing and people are living in to make sure that that parking management is being fulfilled to what the contract was

proposed that it was going to do so we surveyed two existing project to review the number of parking spaces that are used currently. And the rate of usage is about 1.7, 1.8 spaces for the multifamily drawing units. Now, there are differences between the use of parking when you have an apartment complex which share parking within a parking structure that's open or when there is a development that has garage parking. now in those cases we do have issues where the individual parking spaces are

not being used so we're looking at what we need to do to recalibrate the parking for those type of units but for multifamily when it's in a share structure what we have found with our studies that it's around 1.8 spaces per unit but this project will require two spaces per unit and that includes guest

David Penaloza

parking and okay so that that answered that with I just have some questions just again with that with the height of the of the project just so I could personally visualize because you say 95 feet I know that's high but I just want to see what kind of how it compares to nearby areas. I'm on Google Earth right now and I'm trying to see. Do we know how tall the Discovery Cube is? 110 feet. If

you can see on the picture the Discovery Cube is right there. Okay. What about the

David Penaloza

current building? How tall is that? The current building that sits on the lot?

You're talking about the current building? Yeah the current building. That building is right

David Penaloza

about 30 feet tall 30 feet and do we know how tall the city bank building is that sits on the corner of memory and main that's 10 stories hi it's about a

hundred feet right about 120

David Penaloza

that answers the questions that I that I had written down because I wanted to just kind of visualize what this could possibly look at and and it is the size of it is what what kind of you know has been an issue with me from the beginning and I've been vocal about that to the residents and and and the applicant from the beginning and you know it's just you know hearing the the numerous you know comments you know that they are you know some you know are you know it makes me think because uh you know I'm not here to defend any any body or applicant or

David Penaloza

residents or political party I don't think you know this this isn't really about a party at all it's a neighborhood that is doesn't want you know feels like it's gonna get impacted but I also don't agree personally that this is gonna bring burglary to the neighborhood I feel that that's one of the what I had written down on the pros is that that would actually limit the amount of current burglaries taking place by helping move out the homeless residents and and these are luxury apartments or not it's not like you're gonna have you know thugs moving in you're you're gonna have decent people that work so that's you

David Penaloza

You know, I like a lot of what was said on both sides, and I'm just trying to think of the... There was one other question, but I'll come back if the mayor wants to...

Yeah, I want to make some comments, but first, Councilman Salodio.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have a variety of questions.

I've been, you know, looking at this project for some time and definitely have been getting excellent, you know, feedback and ongoing communications from Park Santiago Neighborhood Association. So definitely a big shout out to the leadership in sustaining this involvement. Many of you probably remember, I used to be on the City Council, then went to the State Assembly, came back and really the way I feel about it is,

we were waiting to see what the EIR did and it came back. I thought it would identify more impacts, but I probably was very disappointed that staff didn't do much more an effort grilling down on what that project is and what the neighborhood may like. Because nobody knows that neighborhood or the character of that neighborhood better than many of these individuals that are right out here.

and we ought not to roll over their head is the way I feel about I think you know the staff made some very minor suggestions that the developer was quick to implement but I'm not really sure if it went far enough I know that the project as before me on this agenda tonight I'm opposed to it I think it needs some work.

And whether there are changes that we can make tonight or in six weeks or in two weeks or two years, I don't know. But I do feel that substantial work needs to be done.

My planning commissioners can win. And I think those of you that were following this project closely know that he voted against the project.

And that's just kind of just to give you the sense of the freedom that I gave with him. And we've chatted about the project, but I continue to have questions. There's really a lot of actions in this item. Some are legislative, some are quasi-judicial. I know sometimes that the neighborhood of certain leaders were upset that I wasn't saying what I was for or against. but it would have been inappropriate for me to do that in a private setting without the benefit of this information and hearing. And so that's why I still continue to have questions. So starting with the EIR, I mean, it didn't identify many impacts,

but why didn't the staff try to do more in terms of bridging the results of the EIR versus the request of the neighborhood?

The project request from the neighborhood, we did meet with the neighborhood a few times on the project. The information that has come back is that the density preference of the neighborhood is a much lower density than the project that's currently studied in the EIR.

So you focus just on the density. And I think you nudged it down a little bit, but obviously not enough for the neighborhood to feel any real benefit. On the traffic, and I know we've focused quite a bit on that, I think the bottom line on that is that residential overall generates less traffic than commercial or office. There isn't a lot of county-wide demand for office, so we all need to know that. I do know in comparison to what is there now, this would generate more traffic. But if it was fully built out as an office can be,

this is better as well as traffic is distributed more throughout the day rather than just at peak times. I think we addressed that. Some of the things that haven't been addressed that I wanted to clarify. On main place, that's kind of come up whether that didn't get addressed or not. I know whether it be a significant project like that or MacArthur Place that used to be on the Planning Commission and Council when we entitled much of that. We know that a few decades back, and I think probably before Mr. Mayor was on the Council, there was a master development approved for the main place area.

what they're projecting to build out now, which is some renovation, some expansion, is that density less than what they are already entitled to do, or how do those two things compare? Because something that the neighborhood's concerned about and I'm concerned about is cumulative impact, but there's been this question on Main Place and the developments there.

So main place you're correct was approved back in the 80s for a development and they never built out the project was approved for commercial office hotel. What they're looking right now is to reduce the commercial component reduce some of the office component and convert that into residential. So the project is being analyzed to evaluate whether or not that conversion is either has more impact, less impact, or the same. So that's what we're analyzing.

But right now in terms of just square footage or any other metrics?

In terms of square footage, they're reducing commercial, they're reducing office to accommodate for the proposed residential.

Okay. So you're not sure whether on the net it's more or less?

At this point, we're still studying that.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

Distance from the freeway, I do know that there is ongoing concern with how close housing should be next to freeways. I don't know if there's a crystal line on what the state approves or not. But the location of this proposed project to the freeway, can, is there a staff person here that can definitively answer whether this meets state guideline or not?

Yes, the project site is located within 500 feet of the freeway. The EIR, we did an HRA, which is a health risk assessment related to the particulates

What I asked about, though, is there like a state law or a guideline that this distance would be...

Well, CARB provides, California Air Resources Board provides an advisory to evaluate the emissions that come off of the freeway, whether it's within 500 feet of a train, 500 feet of a freeway, or certain other situations.

Okay. So there's an advisory thing from CARB.

It's an advisory thing to look at, which we looked at in the EIR. And it was done at health risk assessment with a specific study done to evaluate that. It's an appendix to an EIR also.

Thank you. On security, I myself have real doubts about just having private security drive around town. I don't know whether there's precedent in this city, city attorney, or other cities where rather than having private security be kind of a condition in the development agreement that it might just be a contract with the city police department or something comparable.

You know, I'm thinking, you know, some months ago with the Orange County High School of the Arts, there was their kind of, you know, a contract arrangement. Again, just thinking what alternatives there would be to that.

Sonia R. Carvalho

Just to answer your specific question, how you choose to secure the security really is a policy decision, and it can be. Of course, I'd recommend that you consult with your police chief in terms of availability, cost, and so on, but it certainly is an option. Legally, it is an option.

Okay. I just know that that's come with concern with what's being proposed. And then on parking, I always ask about that, talk about that. I think we're making a little bit of headway in what staff's proposing on these kinds of projects. I know in addition to what's already been asked and answered on page 75E-171,

there's more particular detail on the onsite parking management plan. And so it kind of is in writing that that does need to occur and that there does need to be city approval. So I do think there's a lot of detail already there in writing. what I want as a mechanism, and I've said this before, whether it be as a function of what gets approved here or other similar documents with other housing projects, we, I think, as council folks really want to get in the weeds on what appropriate measures would be and enforcement. Because the other thing we don't want to do in addition to just allowing encroachment

is putting all the onus on city PD and traffic to mitigate you know what might be problems with the private property and so here there's still the ambiguity of they got a develop a plan staff has to approve it but you know this is so significant that I think we want to get in there a little bit more so we need a little bit more process on what are what are appropriate thresholds because maybe we don't like what they proposed and I don't know if our city attorney or you have an answer on really

how far can we take that that parking management plan because that's something that's very near and dear to my heart with this project and others as well so

the parking management plan is one of those document that will survive the development agreement should the project be approved and get recorded our intent is to work with the applicant to come up with a proposed management plan and if desired by the council we can bring it back and present it to you at a future date so that it does it is seen by the council as well as gets reviewed by staff and a recommendation you know and then this project again may or may not

happen as it's being proposed I just say I'm saying this needs to be correct with everybody because again we could say you're going to work with the developer but if they're not willing to agree to something strong enough I have concerns about that and so at some point want to continue to work on that. I also know that housing is a real concern and you know I know that I benefited from being able to find you know a studio on North of you know Broadway many years ago when I first came to San Ann after UCI and so I want to make sure there is

appropriate housing for young families, young professionals, and so I am very concerned with that. But I also know there's often many housing projects or other projects that we build kind of for Santa Ana folks, but then we never put any controls in, so the folks that benefit are folks from out of town or people that are a little bit more, you know, insider in nature. So how might we, and maybe a Any question for the city attorney or you, how can we work with, and again, not just this developer, but for other projects as well. How can we ensure some level of priority for Santa Ana residents?

So that they kind of have first option to know that these apartments exist and And we want housing, step-up housing for individuals, which then, by the way, opens up more affordable apartments for others in town. So kind of two families would benefit, if you will.

Sonia R. Carvalho

There are many state and especially federal housing laws which wouldn't really allow us to discriminate about in terms of who gets what type of apartment units. I am aware of some incentive programs that have been used in some other projects when you're looking to provide this kind of step-up housing. There are some programs and some information that we could provide to you, staff, and the developer of this project, but we cannot absolutely require it. You cannot say that this is a type of person.

I know some affordable housing. We've done some things and probably more incentive in nature. And, again, this is the kind of thing where I'd like to build this into this, but how can we do this tonight? Or do we need to deny it to later on make these level of changes? I want to continue to hear more from my colleagues, but that's another example of the type of question and concern that I have. And then finally, and it's been talked about, the height issue. I know with neighborhood leaders and city staff, I've talked a lot about the mark and the pinnacle.

Down at Main and MacArthur, near Sandpoint, and I was on the Planning Commission and Council when there was a lot of objection to that. but again better coordination between the developer of the staff in the neighborhood that unfortunately didn't happen here but in looking at those and they're probably seven to eight hundred units there that you know they've been built out and I think the neighborhood down there has seen it's not as as bad as they thought it would be but I did notice that the height of both of those projects probably are you know three and four stories high not you know five six

or seven. So I do want to see, you know, if this project were to go through, I want to see, because it was a common theme tonight, that this is, you know, too big and too dense in particular. And so that's what the neighbor wants to see. And I do know there are a lot of, you know, reasonable residents here or back at home that they just don't want to see something stacked up so high versus the neighborhood base. So I just wanted to make that as an observation.

Before I make a comment, I just want to ask staff, should the developer have a chance to say anything?

Sonia R. Carvalho

Well, if you have questions of staff, you should ask them if you're done, if all questions of staff are...

Because I'm ready to call for the questions, see where folks are at, entertain a motion.

Sonia R. Carvalho

My understanding is the developer had reserved some time, but it's up to the developer as to whether they want to do that.

Would the developer like to say anything at this time?

David Penaloza

Can I ask one final question before? Go ahead. Can you see the parking structure from the street? I know that the actual project is, what was it, five, six feet? I mean, stories. the parking structure is nine but can you see the parking structure from this from anywhere around the property or is it just covered by the by the project so

the parking is wrapped by the apartment units so even though it's higher it's located in the center if you were to stand adjacent to the street if you were standing adjacent to the street you would not be able to see it but if you back up far enough at some point you will be able to see it so it's a it's all perspective wise. Thank you. Go ahead. Ryan Ogolnick, developer, RC Alley, the architect. Thank you for all your time. It's been a long evening. Thank you, Park Santiago. I'm listening

to you. I know this council is listening to you. I consider Santa Ana sort of a second home for me. I spent two, three days a week in Santa Ana. I love Santa Ana.

I think in listening to the folks tonight, I think some changes to the project are in order. I'm prepared to do significant changes, if it's okay with the mayor. Having thought about this from the last hearing and coming into tonight, we've put together some potential revisions for you guys to consider, both in massing scale height density so if it's okay with you we'll just show a few slides go

ahead but but ultimately i don't think we're really going to be able to consider that today today we have the project before us

but go ahead ryan i mean if you got a photo or two go ahead it's it's it's not going to be long It's very quick, just a few days.

So if we could go to the...

When do we go with this?

Sonia R. Carvalho

Mayor, perhaps we could ask the city clerk in the last, when we did this, I know the developer did reserve time. Do we recall how many minutes the developer had reserved at the beginning of the public hearing? I recall it was 10 minutes. And how much did they use of their 10 minutes?

I don't recall the time.

Just keep it brief and go forward. We'll go as fast as we can. It's late. So what we're suggesting is the apartment portion of the project, as it's currently in front of you coming into this hearing, is six stories.

We're recommending to remove the entire six floor of the building. We're recommending removing 50% of the fifth level. We're recommending removing two levels of the parking garage as we remove density, still keeping the same ratio of 2.0 parking. One quick side note, we've studied Southern California projects, our projects, other projects in Santa Ana, and we agree with staff with guest parking we're seeing 1.7 to 1.8 and those projects are typically

50% twos and ones this project 70% ones and 30% twos so it would be it would be less parking on top of the the garage in the center of the project is a 19 foot structure of about 4,000 feet. That structure houses the gym in a clubhouse. Removing that structure, relocating it where units are currently located, drops it by 19 feet. In addition, because we're taking out units, we can keep the same 2.0 and we can lower, take out two levels of the garage. So between the 19 feet and

the two levels of garage, that's 40 feet. So the highest point of the garage would go from 95 feet down to 55 feet. We'll get there. In addition to that, as Councilwoman Iglesias has said, I've also met with the folks, I think six or seven that live on Spurgeon, and I'm sensitive to them and potentially they're the most impacted. So in order to address that, we'll move the setback, which is currently at 40 feet to 52. The current zoning is 50. and I believe the existing building's at 50.

When we do all these changes, the overall mass of the application coming in today is shifted and reduced by approximately 25%. From our first application, the mass against scale is reduced by 37%. And now let's quickly, RC, just go to a couple images. So I know that I said that all quickly and it's late, but by removing the sixth story and the fifth story on Main and Edgewood so what RC is showing now this is the building coming into today's hearing make

changing the the height will reduce two stories on Main will also you show where that was before and after that that shows the outline so we're going from approximately 62 feet on Main that's the apartment portion down the 42 feet and then as we turn the corner on Edgewood similar we're going from 60 we'll take two stories off and we'll go from 62 feet down to 42 feet I think that I think that covers it RC we don't have to show each picture and then one other

quick point that Councilwoman Iglesias made about the heritage project the heritage project was on the site of 18.6 acres two acres of it is an office campus campus one acre is a central park and one acres a road so the 18.6 is actually 14.6 of apartments divided by the number of units it comes to 83.66 six units to the acre. So this as proposed tonight is pretty similar, but with these changes we're going down to about 69 units to the acre.

We do have plans that reflect these changes. RC, can you come back up quickly? Just show that real quickly. It's just two more images.

The unit count goes, depending upon the option, in the high 300s, 385 to 395.

So it's a loss of about 125 units from our first application. It's a loss of about 100 from our second. And then going into tonight, it would be a loss of roughly 75, 80 units. It's on this. It's on this. There we go. So what this shows, what was coming into tonight, was six story. The darkened area will be reduced to five. The area in the back is already terrace from two, three, and four. And then what this darkened area shows is on Main and Edgewood. That was previously five, and that will go down to four. I think you guys all get it, right? So any questions on what I had to say?

Thank you. Okay. No questions?

No.

Okay. Thank you.

All right, let me say my piece if I may.

I've been around here a while, and I'll tell you, I don't think I've ever seen these many people with this much history. if we were to figure out people years you know people came up and said I've been here 45 years I've been 56 years I've I'm a second generation or I grew up in the neighborhood and now I'm older and I and I love this neighborhood and I get to live here it's just amazing you know the history

and the the the fabric of of of this community and um i believe

i believe that um you know the project right now what we have before us is a project that's proposed and to me that project doesn't work at that location

when i when i see other projects that have height and have massing and density i look at something like the mark for example down on maine and macarthur and south part of the city across from Sandpoint but if you really look at that project it's across the street and then it's got a pretty good setback and and it's not 95 feet it is less than that and in that I think is being you know sensitive if you will to Sandpoint neighborhood and and I think we should always strive to do that

especially when it's a private development and that's what this is this is not you know a a general attraction like uh let's say a main place you know that's a regional attraction that's a regional center there's different factors that come into play um this is an apartment complex period and you know we're already doing i don't know how many units but i know it's thousands of units that are right now being considered in the city. If you look at what's going on on Harbor Boulevard, if you're looking at what's going on around Main Place, if you look at some of the other

some of the, you know, just go like this. If you want to apply, just go, let's go like this. There you go. Yeah, take a picture, Juan. Everybody's going like this, but alright, he's going to post it.

Quiet clapping. Quiet clapping. But look, there's a ton of development going on here in the city. And, you know, our neighborhoods, and I know we can't, look, we've lost some neighborhoods. You know, French Park. I went to Debbie McEwen's going away party recently because she's selling her home, and she was active in French Park forever and ever. We've done a lot of development around French Park. And there's a few homes there, but a lot of the fabric, a lot of what French Park used to be, really is no more and and and it's sad to see that then you know Park Santiago

is an intact neighborhood and and that means a lot yeah there you go that's better and so for the folks at home they're all going like this and that's why you don't hear them anymore so so look I I think if this project's going to be redesigned, if folks are going to work with the neighborhood, if it's going to be a real deal, we should do it, but we should do it the right way. The right way means start from the beginning, you know, go through our process, go through Planning Commission, and

then let's see what a project looks like as it comes back. I think that's the way to do it, and for the staff recommendation that's before us today, I would have to vote against that recommendation before us today and and you know just go back and try to do this right mr

mayor make a motion to deny the staff recommendation all right we have a motion to deny the staff

recommendation i'll go ahead and second that motion but you have a question councilman yes

what's the process how long does it take for it to go through the entire process going through the Planning Commission coming before us because it's been what since 2017 so it's been almost two years or how long has it been since

2017 yeah October of 2017 the application was filed so would it take

that long for us to have something come before us? Certainly not. We're going to

be starting with more information and more data as far as an environmental

impact report. So how many months would it be? What are we looking at? So with the

recalibrated project we could be looking at probably three months to four, three

to four months to come back. Three to four months? So then so my understanding would be that okay if if we don't go with a staff recommendation because we really can't make changes at this point then we would have to go back to have the integrity of the of the project and everything so you have to go back and before the planning Commission again but are we going to be having like the sunshine ordinance and all and all that okay if you could just explain it to me

because this yeah what we will do is you're gonna have a revised application You're going to have somebody who's going to revise their application. Staff will have to analyze that application and make sure it goes through all the proper steps within our code. And that may include the Sunshine Ordinance because it's substantially modified from what it used to be. So we'll take very cautious steps to make sure the process is done correctly. And that will take some time.

It'll be about three to four months. Is that what I'm...

I think a little more than that.

Sonia R. Carvalho

Yeah, I'd like to just say I think you should give us the opportunity to take a look at it. I do believe you have your options. If you're going to deny the project tonight, I think that's the motion that's on the floor. We'll take a look at that and we'll decide, working with staff, what the process looks like. I believe that those items will apply. If you're sending this project back to the Planning Commission for a look, that's a little bit of a different process versus starting absolutely from go. So would I hear your motion tonight is a motion to deny?

Correct.

Sonia R. Carvalho

versus sending it back to the commission, and that will make a difference in terms of timing.

Mr. Mayor, I have some questions.

Councilman Soule, and I wasn't done with my comments, but go ahead, and then you, and then Councilman Rinsch on me.

Well, if you're not done, why don't you go ahead and...

Well, the only thing I wanted to also add is that I mentioned earlier the integrity of a neighborhood, and I think this project, at the end of the day, should not break up that integrity of the neighborhood.

And, you know, why are all these people here? Why did they stay? Why don't they leave? Because they love it. They love it. And we want them to continue to do so. I mean, what makes us different from every other city in Orange County? Our history. Our history. Our character, our neighborhoods, the fact that every house is different. you know you can go just go like this you know you can go to many cities and and maybe the name of the streets gonna change but there's no soul there that you know there's no reason to say I

I want to be here and and so you know I I see a whole community here very together with a very strong unified voice and therefore i think if we look at a different project whatever it may be it is appropriate that they get input from the beginning to the end and if the you know the changes are going to be significant as they were suggested maybe there will be a compromise that works that's to be determined but i think that process matters um and and and that's why i supported that motion so now let's take common councilor salario i i just said for for clarification

but really more questions as well. I don't think I heard the city attorney or staff say that we couldn't make tweaks tonight, even along the levels of what we've been discussing. I think I hear my colleagues saying, you know, right now you have a substandard situation over there. We need to improve it. A big question is we want to see less scale, less density, less of the issues the neighborhoods are talking about. The question is how much of that can we do tonight?

If you want me to vote the other way, please keep interrupting me, but I have some real questions here, so if you don't mind, let me continue. I hear my colleagues and others saying they want to at least look at what less density might look like. The question is can we do all that tonight or in two weeks or beyond, or do we need a denied, does it need to go back to the Planning Commission? I'll tell you, though, having been doing this stuff for a while, the EIR sending it back isn't going to change much. The Planning Commission review and staff report isn't going to change much.

So really it's more of a policy discussion and what the neighborhood's willing to do with the developer to give us more of a comfort that we've addressed the critical natures. And, I mean, we've heard hours and hours of testimony, but not really haven't had the back and forth time to answer all these questions and clearly work with the neighborhood on what might be there. And, for example, I forgot to mention, but something very important for me. I'd like to see, and again, whether it's this project or revised project or something else, I'd like to see condominiums. I'd like to see homeownership opportunities.

I don't want to see just apartments. If you have condos, these are folks that have skin in the game, they're going to be around, given a more substantial weight. So I'd like to see, I know the staff report analysis says condo map, et cetera, in the future, but I'd like to explore, can we, whether getting this product or revise or something else, require that, for example, at least 25% of the units be condo. that's what we ended up doing you know with the pinnacle and and bandage townhomes that's what we did it was the same kind of thing there was going to be

way too many apartments there was an interest in you know mitigating it but again time-wise can we do that tonight or in two weeks we gotta find that

Sonia R. Carvalho

comfort level level of changes that I see proposed tonight both in the pictures and the policy questions that you're raising in my opinion cannot be addressed tonight I think that they are significant I'm also hearing the council and I'm listening to the motion that's on the floor, that what you're asking for is really that you want to be responsive to the neighborhood. So I don't know how we could at 1130 at night really try to start to negotiate with the neighborhood. I believe that in order to have more transparency, you're going to need to have a few more public meetings.

Sonia R. Carvalho

I think if you want to do this right, you want to give the applicant the time to go talk to the neighborhood, because that's what I'm really hearing is a neighborhood wants to hear a little more. And so that's what I would suggest.

One last comment I'll share before the rest of my colleagues could speak is, I mean, the developer threw up some slides with a high number of units, but I want that vetted. I mean, I'm a trust but verified kind of guy. You know, does it really, you know, add up or not? But process-wise, my last question is they obviously have paid a fee, paid for all this stuff. What would only really throw a continuous? Can we keep the process in play? If we do something else, do they got to start from scratch?

Sonia R. Carvalho

Here's what I would recommend. There's a motion on the floor to deny the staff recommendation. I would suggest to you that you modify that, maybe amend it to direct staff to go work with the applicant on what this new review will look like.

And the neighborhood.

Sonia R. Carvalho

And the neighborhood, right. But I believe that there's three steps. One is that you have your staff analyze everything that you talked about tonight. step two is to go back and talk to the applicant about whether the applicant is willing to take some of the steps necessary to make this project successful and step three is to take it back to the neighborhood right and you may in in good practice may want to let the Planning Commission take a look at that so that it can be vetted before it gets here that's why they're an advisory body so that we don't sit here through 200 speakers this process obviously for

Sonia R. Carvalho

us didn't work if you had 200 speakers show up at your council meeting that this really needs to happen at a different level that's my answer so I'd be open

with a month or two month continuous to do all that but obviously I'm only I'm

only one at one of seven up here my concern is just the integrity of the process that we're compromising so I think it's just cleaner if the developer really wants to do this it's just cleaner to to start clean if they can be expedited we'll expedite it it'll come back to the council it'll go through all these folks and we're not doing you know secret meetings or or or or things that um that it's like no one's advocating for secret meeting mr mayor no no but but it's cleaner to do it clean it's cleaner just to start

from scratch we we're all set up for that i i think that's the way to go yeah um there might be a possibility even that it's something other than apartments what happens yeah that's a possibility and the only way that's going to happen I think is if we take a fresh look at it yeah I definitely don't think that we

David Penaloza

should start from scratch because this is a year this is almost two years of It would be wasted time on the community, wasted time on the applicant, wasted time on our behalf. And I don't think we should start from scratch. I think that, you know, and I'm trying to understand the process of these changes. You know, we talk about, you know, making changes and we hear people yell, no rezoning. So we know that whatever is proposed is not going to be accepted if it's residential. So at this point, it's not even the size of it. it's you they don't know residents is wanted which is that the truth see so

David Penaloza

it's it's not even a concern of size anymore so I don't think we should start from scratch I think that with all due respect to the neighborhood and the applicant I feel like there's been a lot of things that have been contributed to

David Penaloza

to trying to find some middle ground here and I think that we should we should work. Can you guys please stop being disrespectful? Please? Everybody that's yelling? And I think we should, you know, because it sends a bad message to, you know, this is why it takes years for anything to get done in our city because of these delayed processes. So I think, you know, I kind of agree with what Council Member Solodio was saying. Let me go to Mayor Pro Temp,

There's a delay process because the general plan hasn't been updated in over 30 years. So every time somebody wants to come out and do a development, it's got to come before the council. And I'm just afraid that some of these, you know how politicians can be, they want to try to squeeze something out of these people. It's the truth. So, you know what, it's better for us to invest in the general plan and there won't be any of us rezoning things. That's one of the things that we got to look at. Let's keep it clean. and this is why it's before us right now because it needs to be rezoned

and those are my comments but uh you know at what point and you know what's going to happen if we want to start all over again they're going to come out even stronger this is this is significant this is i mean you gotta at what point are we going to listen to the the uh the residents that's who put us here and so those are those are my beliefs that you know we we have to It's a balancing act here, but this is, you know, get the hint.

All right, look, we're starting to go around in circles. Another couple comments, and let's see if we can vote. Council Member Vince Sarmiento. Thank you.

So what I've been hearing up here is the same thing I think the city attorney's been listening to, is that we have a difference of opinion, not on whether we should go forward tonight, because that obviously is something that's off the table, but it's how we proceed going forward. Do we go ahead and just restart and do a whole new environmental document, start from scratch, and we're back here again through a long, prolonged process? Or do we send this back to the Planning Commission with public hearings with the neighborhood and with the applicant with the revised plan?

So, just to be fully vetted, there's a motion on the floor to deny and not go with staff's recommendation. I would propose that we, I'm going to propose a substitute motion that this gets sent back to the Planning Commission after work is done with the applicant and the neighborhood and staff. The only thing I would add to that is, Mr. Mayor, I wish you would have been this critical of a project when the Elon was being proposed on First Street. And when the Willowick project comes up, which is 100 acres, it's right up against the Santa Anita neighborhood. Please be as well as that.

I know, and I will tell you that that is a regional project. No, that's not.

and that's why i'm at within the city boundaries it's a regional project in terms of the use and there's there's a neighborhood that's not as well developed as this one not as affluent as this one i want you to be as just as critical about that one when we move forward on that so please that's

why i made those comments council member because i see the nature of a potential stadium as being let's just not be hypocritical than uh than an addition than uh an apartment that is my ward and I will protect it. Right. So with that.

Sonia R. Carvalho

Is there another motion?

He made a substitute motion.

Sonia R. Carvalho

Was there a second to the substitute motion?

That's my question to ask, Sonia.

Sonia R. Carvalho

I'll let it know.

Is there a second? I'll second it just so we can have more dialogue. Because I have a legal question to the motion. The substitute motion is to send it back to the Planning Commission. But process-wise, given fees and everything else, is that really a doable route or should we instead just have it come back to the council and

Sonia R. Carvalho

so i hear the substitute motion as um to the planning commission after working with staff

and the applicant that was the that's what i heard that's correct so it's not going direct i mean look to send it back to the planning commission as is we're not getting anywhere but if there's work done if there's adjustments that can be considered and if there's resistance then the planning commission is going to advise us that nothing's changed right if there are substantive changes. My only concern is that, again, will the EIR documents survive substantial modifications? That's the legal question that we have to have answered. So hopefully it still remains within the confines

of what substantial changes are and we still can get this through because we're spending staff time on this. We're expending a lot of resources. So to the extent that we could put this to bed at some point and not have it reappear and go through this whole process for another year, it just makes much more fiscal sense to me.

So as we've got, which is really then to send it back to the Planning Commission, but with staff working with the developer in the neighborhood, clearly there's not the support tonight as it is, and I kind of like where the developer wants to head, but it's not there tonight. But I also don't want to just keep spinning our wheels, so with some staff

involvement... All right, so we have a motion to second our subsequent motion. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed? No. I'll vote no as well. So with that, we move on.

So what was the vote? Can you announce it?

4-2.

Okay.

Sonia R. Carvalho

And I just want to clarify that this will be sent back to the Planning Commission after consultation with staff and the applicant and the community. Yes. Okay.

All right, guys. So more work.

Hey! Where's the first one?

Okay, be quiet as you leave. We're going to keep, we still have a council meeting to undertake.

Madam City Attorney, everybody, if you just keep it quiet as you leave, please just keep it quiet city attorney is anything to report out a closed

Sonia R. Carvalho

session please we have no reportable action although direction was given to

staff on a number of items all right so with that I'd entertain a motion on the consent calendar unless people have items to fall 19 D you want to call it

yes

Any other items to be pulled?

Make a motion, approve the balance.

We have a motion on the balance. Second. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye, those opposed, motion carries.

Do you have an item to be pulled? Okay, on 19D, I have some speakers. Karen Rodriguez, followed by Fabiola Zamora.

Followed by Sari Apero.

Good evening. My name is Karen Rodriguez. I'm a Santana resident, and I'm here to discuss item 19D on behalf of a court. I urge the City Council to continue the item, the request for proposals for the sale of city-owned properties until the city can demonstrate how it plans to comply with the California Surplus Land Act with these sales. In the staff report prepared for this agenda item, the city fails to explain how it will comply with the Surplus Land Act and its requirements and provisions relating to the notification and the prioritization of affordable housing.

This city council has led us down a path of illusion, telling residents who have advocated for the prioritization of community-led development under the SLA that it was impossible because these parcels proposed for sale are considered remnant, meaning they were not developable and of no use to the city. Now you tell us these lands are in fact exempt because they were being held for the purpose of sale. Nowhere in the staff report does it indicate that that was the intention for these lands. The intention for these parcels have not been made clear.

It's been spun into a contradicting web of confusion. They can't be defined as both remnant and surplus. Therefore, the city must state how you classify this land with well-written and well-documented evidence by, one, clearly stating how this land is being classified and be consistent. Two, provide this evidence to the public before releasing a request for proposals. Accord's mission is to ensure that there is equitable development in Orange County and specifically in Santana.

We believe that selling off public assets without consideration of the Surplus Land Act is absolutely in direct conflict to promoting equitable development, which you all just talked about right now. Not only is the City Council demonstrating their lack of consideration towards state law, but complete disregard of the residents. The residents of this community demand that their elected officials champion their most urgent, basic, and fundamental needs. selling and disposing of these public lands is reckless and betrays a true honest and transparent process.

We ask you that you continue Item D until you, the Mayor and the members of City Council can answer how you plan to comply with the California surplus land act with the sale of these public lands.

Thank you. Now Luis Sarmiento, are you here?

Good evening. Hello. Check, check.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Council members and mayor, I also would like to ask you to postpone or continue this item and not release the RFP. I also want to mention that many residents who were here to speak on this item had to leave, in particular folks with families had to go home. And also I do appreciate that there was some really healthy conversation tonight about development and we're happy to see residents mobilized here in the city to bring up important questions about development to the council and that's what we would like to continue

we would like to see that continue to happen around these public lands on Bristol Street. So we would like to ask you to not sell these public lands. I also would like to note that the Essence, or the Surplus Land Act, which we would like to talk more about, in essence, requires cities, and this is a state law, that requires cities to prioritize affordable housing and open space. We know that the lack of open space here in Santana is critical and has caused all kinds of health issues amongst our youth and amongst our families.

And so please don't try to skimp around this state law, but rather address these needs in our city by working with residents and work with community groups that are bringing forward viable solutions and viable ideas. Folks that want to be involved in development, folks that want to be a part of these solutions using this great opportunity that we have with our public lands. Thank you.

Thank you. I believe Isuri Ramos, Marta Sanchez,

Kali Levitt, Kaley Levitt,

Laura Paniolos, I believe, P-A-N-I-O, it looks like a L-S, Sara Aspero, Fabiola Zamora, that's everybody. All right, so with that, I'll bring it back, Council Member Sarmiento.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and given the fact that so many speakers are not here, they probably did leave because we had this other larger, more well attended issue before this. And I think for staff, if they don't mind just answering a quick question on this, is there some urgency or time sensitivity to addressing this tonight? I know we want to get moving on doing something with these remnant parcels, and I think there's a legal question on whether or not the SLA applies. I know that there was a memo that was circulated that says that we've disposed of other properties without being hindered by the SLA.

But again, I think that there's still an open question. I certainly have a question about whether or not it applies. And even if it doesn't, why can't we use those, I guess, those goals that the SLA has of trying to promote open space and affordable housing for some of these lots that may be applicable. Some of them won't work for any housing and they only make sense sometimes to the adjacent property owner. Others may, and that's just something I think we should consider because it's a significant number of remnants. I saw the matrix, and it looks like there's a lot there.

But is there any harm in continuing this for the next meeting, given that we've had such a robust discussion?

Is it two-week continuance okay?

If I may, whether we continue it two weeks or two months, we're going to be coming back with the same recommendations because all of these properties are exempt from the public lands sale. They were never used for municipal uses. We consulted with the city attorney, and that was the opinion given to us.

But if the council member is a courtesy once, two weeks, is there a problem? I know they're use-restricted, right? Therefore, the Bristol widening, all the proceeds would be...

With all respect, I'm just being straightforward and frank with you. there are restrictions on the sale of this property that came when we acquired these properties. We used transportation funding that came with restrictions that we must sell those properties. And that's not going to change. It's not going to change, whether two weeks or two months. Right, that won't change.

But if there's a group that's out there that wants to purchase it for affordable housing or for one of the uses that the Surplus Land Act, maybe they're able to call it together financing.

They absolutely can submit a proposal to this.

So to the mayor's point, is there any harm in continuing this for two weeks? We just slow things down two weeks. Absolutely no. All right, why don't we do a two-week continuance? Thank you. I'll move to continue for two weeks.

All right, motion and a second by Iglesias. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye, those opposed. Motion carries. We've done the rest of the consent calendar. Now let me see what do we have on the business.

That's it. We continue 65A and B. You have 88. 88.

If we can continue 88, please.

You want to continue 88? I'll move to continue. All right, let's continue that. So I'll second it. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed, motion carries. 85A, is there any difficulty with moving forward on that?

I have a question. Sure. That's the one with extending the lease, right? Right. For the college.

I don't know, have we heard from the parks?

Yes, Council Member Iglesias. We have heard today from the National Park Service that they will allow us to have a license extension for two years, up to two years. So we can move forward to bring it back to you all to decide if that is what you want to do. whether it's a one year or a two year or no extension. So we did hear verbally from them today. They will be sending a letter in the next couple of days confirming that in writing.

Since it was not my item, I'd like to recommend two things. One, let's do a two year so it's not banked at us immediately apart, sort of saying that's okay. That way the college can plan classes and have students out there and all that. but also maybe if anybody wants to be on a committee to try to figure this out so we don't need even three but if a couple folks want to take a lead or whatever councilman Soloria I see you nodding your head yes yeah mr. mayor along those

lines and I know we've started to get some feedback from the federal government that they're willing to to do two years but I think part of the reason why we have the problem that we have is we revisit this issue every one two or three years and we don't really have a continual discussion to close short-term and long-term.

But right now, Lucreia is there. And he's very aggressive.

I'm fine with the action, but we do need an ad hoc committee. And I know that Councilwoman Cecilia Iglesias is very involved and interested. I'm interested as well, but we do need to figure out that side. Do you prefer one year to put more pressure on us?

Yes.

I'm fine with two years just because things take longer. They do take longer. But whether one year or two.

I'd say two years, but let's do the ad hoc. Yeah, but do the ad hoc. Do you want to serve, Council Member?

No, because I just don't feel, just like we had the Parks Santiago Neighborhood Association here speaking the neighbors, I don't think we've heard from the neighbors close to Centennial Park what their needs are, what our needs are, because that's where I live. And I know we've been impacted, so I'm not in agreement with extending it for two years. If anything, maybe just a year at the most. But I just feel that we have neglected that neighborhood, that area for the longest time. And if the college really wanted to do something, they could go to Godinus. They have the school there.

They could go to other schools within the San Diego State School District if they wanted to. So I just feel as residents around that area, we haven't been given that voice. And I just, I'm not in favor of extending it at all because I just feel we need to start looking at ways how we're going to utilize the park for the common good, for the community. And I just feel it's been unfair, unfair representation of the community there on the west end of Santa Ana.

Sonia R. Carvalho

And may everyone remind you, you wouldn't be approving an extension tonight. You'd be giving staff direction because we don't prepare necessary documents and work with our department director.

I think we have to work with the community and with the college. Why don't we do one year? It'll put more pressure on us to try to get it done, and hopefully we have it done in a year. So let's give direction if everybody agrees. We have a motion and a second just to give direction. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye.

Aye. Just one final comment. The feds may say, though, you know what? you guys keep coming back every one two three years because nothing but questions and heartache they may want to give us two just so we can really figure it out this time can you uh

this isn't the first extension we get prepare both and then we'll decide in two weeks yes yeah

all right that sounds good thank you mayor polito and council if you can clarify who was the first

first and second i was the second i think the mayor was the first and the third no i'm kidding All right, so what's our next item? City Manager, brief comments?

I'd like to congratulate...

David Penaloza

Really quick, that wasn't a... Wait, that was the vote, right? It was a direction...

No, we didn't vote on it.

Sonia R. Carvalho

We'll be preparing it.

David Penaloza

Oh, okay, got it. Good.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to just congratulate our Public Works Agency for being awarded $7.2 million by the State's Active Transportation Program.

Thank you.

Councilor Vince Sarmiento. Thank you, Mayor. And it's been a long night, so I'm going to keep it really short. I just want to thank staff for being as patient as they've been. This was a lot to manage. Thank you for accommodating the speakers and the residents and people who attended. Good thinking on the heaters. Maybe we get a larger venue next time, I'm not sure, but hopefully we won't have too many of these. The only thing I did want to tell staff as well is thank you for these past few months of some very difficult times, right? And I know when I go up to the eighth floor sometimes it looks like an unrecognizable place.

And so for those of you who are doing double time, double duty, assuming roles that you didn't expect to assume, responsibilities that you didn't have before, thank you for doing that. we hope that up here we can try to settle this down very quickly but i know it's an un it's a very unsettling time so um i just wanted to thank you because i don't get to see all of you on a daily basis but um on behalf of the residents i want to thank you for everything that you do

good night thank you mayor pro tem just want to echo council members uh comments about the staff great work thank you for all that you do really appreciate it and you know the public is very thankful also thank you councilman Solorio thank you mr. mayor

I got a couple things first I want to thank Julie who's also in the audience and I know in addition to working for many of her regular type of project she's getting excited about a hundred and fifty years of history in Santa Ana and has been working individually with council members to see what ideas and thoughts we might have. And I know she's working with some of the nonprofits that want to take a leadership role in the community. You know, the Downtown Business Council and Santa Ana Business Council, as well as the Heritage Museum. I want to thank her, and I know that the staff's also figuring out how to bring back an action

so we can, you know, do some things to commemorate, you know, that history, probably with some activities here at City Hall, but also with some public events. And I think there's people excited about that in Santa Ana, but there's a lot of people just county wide that started here in Santa Ana or have deep and dear connections. So some of these parties need to be, or festivities need to be county wide. And so I do want to thank her and the rest of the staff and my colleagues for helping with that inspiration. Thank you.

Thank you. Councillor Penelosa.

David Penaloza

Yeah, I just wanted to, you know, it's been a busy month. It's not me and along with most of my colleagues were able to participate in the TEP parade to bring in the Lunar New Year, Year of the Pig. So it was nice to go out there to Little Saigon and enjoy those festivities with our community. I got sworn into the Transportation Corridor Agency last week, so that's something that I'm excited to looking forward to giving our city a voice on that board and also had the opportunity to meet with with one of our newest congressmen Harley Ruda along with councilmember Solorio which is good

David Penaloza

to all due respect to our congressman Luke Correa but there's also 40,000 of our residents that live in in Harley Ruda's district so it's important to really make sure that we're covering all of our of our of our city uh again staff thank you so much for the logistics uh you know kudos to you guys that you guys handled outside today and and every day actually uh you guys are doing a great job thank you and that's pretty much it good night

thank you councilman iglesias so i just want to um thank staff for for today for being so So on top of things, making this very long meeting very, I guess, manageable. I also want to thank staff for coordinating the TED Parade in Westminster. Nicole, I know she's not here, but she was my driver and she's amazing. And of course, Julie too and Daisy and everyone that attended. But I just want to give a special shout out to all of you guys. Thank you for being very accommodating.

I know it was a long, wet Saturday, but I know it all came out good. I also want to report out that I attended the SCAG meeting in LA, so I am the new Michelle on SCAG. So I've learned a lot from that meeting. Also, I attended the OCOG for the Orange County.

So a lot of these committee meetings, they're something that I'm learning a lot every time I go. And I also got an opportunity to attend the Orange County Sanitation meeting on Wednesday, and I'll be going back for, I think, an orientation on Wednesday again. Tomorrow, today, actually. Absolutely.

So with that said, I'm very happy and very appreciative for everyone for being very helpful. And the past four meetings have been very, very exciting, to say the least. But I know I'm learning a lot and I just want to thank all of you guys for being very patient with me. And I know this is only the beginning and I want to thank the mayor for your leadership and also mayor pro tem for um your leadership and um thank you all my colleagues on here for being patient and i know we're going to be working together for the best of our city we are and um

thank you especially to the two new council members i know sometimes like drinking out of a fire hose but that's what you got to do and um and i think the entire council is happy that that you've joined us. So with that, this meeting is adjourned.

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