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April 16, 2020 <br />Connie Major <br />923 N. Olive <br />Public Hearing #75A One Broadway Plaza <br />April 21st City Council meeting, <br />Council -members, <br />I do not agree with the staff recommendation to approve the project without further study and <br />protection for Santa Ana residents. <br />At your April 218t city council meeting you will be able to decide and direct the future of the 37- <br />story tower, One Broadway Plaza , (OBP). I have been following OBP since the beginning as I <br />have lived in Santa Ana since 1976. Here are some of my concerns. <br />Traffic: I am pleased with the Planning Commissions recommendations that the developer <br />will be required to provide $300,000 per neighborhood for traffic mitigation plans and <br />implementation for the heavily affected areas and including the Logan neighborhood. But, <br />there have been no changes to the requirements to improve the flow of traffic on the main <br />routes to and from the 5 freeway and 22 freeway. The traffic study that city staff is using as <br />its basis for a recommendation of approval is now terribly old. When written in 2004 it <br />projected out to 2020. That is now! So you can see the traffic study does not look at all the <br />new developments in the midtown area, plus there will be more after three years of tower <br />construction. The traffic study is outdated and needs to be redone! The staff addendum is <br />not adequate. With 415 proposed housing units in the tower and the another 1,731 housing <br />units approved or in process in the midtown area, there is no question that to meet <br />community needs, to keep traffic flowing, we need a new traffic study that goes out to 2030 <br />or more, and addresses the growth of current background traffic volumes. Council - <br />members, do not approve this project without a current traffic study of future projections to <br />develop a proper traffic mitigation plan. <br />2. Affordable Housing: The developer is opting out of including affordable housing units in <br />the tower and is proposing to pay in -lieu fees. This is a buy-out! At the Sunshine Meeting <br />he pointed out proudly that he was including affordable housing units. He needs to stick to <br />that. With the city more and more built out, each housing development needs to accept <br />and include it's required minimum number of affordable units! Please do not accept in -lieu <br />fees when we have a great opportunity to meet basic community needs in a small building <br />footprint. In addition, the units need to be scattered throughout the housing floors, not <br />insulated. We all should be able to understand that affordable housing does not mean "low - <br />class" citizens. Council -members, do not accept the buy-out, demand affordable housing <br />be included. <br />3. Looking at General Plan Goal 1. To promote a balance of land uses to address basic <br />community needs. I am pleased that the Planning Commission voted for the developer's <br />per -living unit park fees be used in the local area of the tower. Perhaps a paved parking lot <br />can be made into a green park and those who parked there be able to use the project's 9- <br />floor parking structure. Or perhaps demolish an existing run-down apartment building to <br />create a park and allow those residents the opportunity to occupy the affordable housing <br />units in the tower, allowing them to stay in the neighborhood. <br />Council -member, Please do not approve this tower project without including affordable housing <br />and a current traffic study, these are reasonable demands. <br />