CORRESPONDENCE - 75A - Laserfiche WebLink

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Lopez, Kenia From: Cruz, Yesenia Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2019 5:17 PM To: eComment Subject: FW: City Council meeting July 2, 2019Item 75A Attachments: 11x17 Survey Site Plan with Property Lines.pdf, Historic Downtown Santa Ana Parking.pdf Please see attached correspondence. Thanks From: Mitra Farokhpay [ Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2019 5:44 AM To: Penaloza, David <DPenaloza@santa-ana.org> Cc: City Council <CityCouncil@santa-ana.org> Subject: City Council meeting July 2, 2019 Item 75A Dear Councilman Penaloza and other distinguished Council members, I am one of the owners of the Historic Pacific Symphony building in UC zone, which is one of the properties in item 75A that will be discussed tonight. A quick explanation and the attached pictures of our case may shed some light on the importance of passage of this item for Santa Ana and it's residents. My partner and I are both registered architects and hold Masters degree in City and Regional Planning. For years we have been wanting to purchase a property in Santa Ana to develop. In 2015 we purchased the Pacific Symphony building, which had been left vacant for almost a decade before our purchase. Since then, we have had some success in stopping the break- ins, but the dilemma continues and it will not stop until this property is developed. Since 2016, with the help of multiple local realtors and particularly the Economic Development department, the property was shown to many interested parties including but not limited to the school district, the developers of Lab in Costa Mesa, multiple banquet facility owners, an interactive theater company, churches, high tech companies, etc... Majority of the visitors liked the building and thought it had great potential for their business. However, after reviewing the City requirements such as on site parking, which is impossible to achieve in our case, they did not pursue our building since they did not know if the City will ever allow development without parking and satisfying some other unattainable requirements, so they decided to look to other cities. As you can see in the attached drawing, this building occupies the entire property and there is no room to provide even one parking space. It was first built as a church, then the Pacific Symphony and then Museum of Natural History occupied it without having on site parking. Many cities consider this situation "non confirming legal building", and provide exemption from onsite parking and other unattainable requirements. Please bear in mind that besides being a historic building in Santa Ana, it is also on the National Registry and exterior of the building can't be altered. 5