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From:Tom Lutz <br />To:Bernal, Sarah <br />Subject:Letter to Planning Commissioners <br />Date:Monday, September 23, 2019 11:02:43 AM <br />September 23, 2019. 10:50 AM. <br />Dear Planning Commissioners, <br />I am writing to urge you to retain some historic preservation of the First America Title <br />building at Main St. and Fifth St. It is the only historic building left at that corner, and <br />the only others two blocks north of our historic Fourth St. are the Arcade building and <br />the old Horton Furniture building both on Main St. between Fifth St. and Santa Ana <br />Blvd. Unfortunately historic buildings across Main St. were torn down to make way <br />for the unimpressive "Flash Cube" buildings, not at all representative of Santa Ana's <br />historic culture. <br />My father John Lutz Jr. worked at Orange County Title / First American Title (OCT / <br />FAT) for 65 years up until he passed away as Vice President in 1989 at age 84. It is <br />where he and my mother met when they both were working in the map department <br />back in the 1920's. Many important transactions were conducted in the development <br />of Orange County at OCT / FAT, one being the title searches and escrows of the <br />properties in the development of Disneyland, which my father personally handled, and <br />those escrows bare his signatures. Other developers of importance were Bill Croddy <br />who built most of our industrial park off Harbor Blvd. south of Warner. And another is <br />Don Koll who was the developer of many of the building at Koll Center, off MacArthur <br />Blvd. across from John Wayne Airport just to mention a few. <br />First American is such an important part of Santa Ana's history that when it finally <br />became necessary to relocate to larger facilities, they chose to stay in Santa Ana at a <br />time when Irvine and South County were wooing business away from our town. <br />I really urge you to stipulate that a portion of the historic facade of OCT / FAT be <br />saved to reflect and tell the importance of the development of Orange County. Plus <br />my dad would really love to look down on this building where he spent 65 years. A <br />good example of salvaging a historic facade is the front of the old Orange School <br />District building across from Chapman University. <br />Sincerely, <br />Tom Lutz <br />Former City Councilman, Mayor Pro Tem, and Planning Commissioner.