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Transit Zoning Code Urgency Interim Ordinance (Moratorium)
<br />April 16, 2024
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<br />harmful pollutants and the associated health risks in disadvantaged communities, and
<br />promoting equitable access to health-inducing benefits such as healthy housing options.
<br />Of note, the new General Plan mixed-use land use designations in the TZC area were
<br />largely left intact, including those in the Lacy and Logan neighborhoods, when the
<br />General Plan Update was adopted in 2022.
<br />Santa Ana’s current General Plan champions implementation policies, including 77 EJ
<br />actions that address air quality, noxious uses, water safety, residential lead exposure in
<br />the soil, and other environmental public health conditions. City staff, over the past year,
<br />have worked on a process to create an EJ Action Committee of EJ cluster area
<br />residents, community-based organizations (CBOs), and County and City staff
<br />representatives, to guide implementation and resource investments to protect
<br />neighborhoods from experiencing any further environmental harm. For the Logan and
<br />Lacy neighborhoods, incompatible land uses allowed from past zoning decisions,
<br />including the industrial overlay zones, have perpetuated the practices of locating
<br />industrial uses or other noxious and unwanted uses, in close proximity to communities
<br />of color.
<br />Code Enforcement and Immediate Ongoing Issues
<br />In the Lacy and Logan neighborhoods within the TZC, the Code Enforcement Division
<br />has investigated over 33 commercial and industrial properties in the past nine months
<br />and currently has 17 active open cases that have been issued Notice of Violations and
<br />administrative citations for the following types of violations: illegal storage, land use,
<br />zoning, property and landscape maintenance, unpermitted work, business license, and
<br />certificate of occupancy. These violations include issues of odors, dust, traffic, noise,
<br />vibrations, and other documented impacts. The close proximity of active open industrial
<br />cases during a short period is creating a public nuisance that is harming public health,
<br />safety, and general welfare of the two residential neighborhoods from the concentration
<br />of open code enforcement cases nearby.
<br />Since June 2023, the TZC communities have experienced a marked increase in impacts
<br />stemming from the irreconcilable industrial and residential land use conflicts in the
<br />Logan and Lacy neighborhoods. Residents in the TZC have increased their reporting of
<br />complaints and public health concerns to City staff regarding emitted contaminants and
<br />zoning violations from industrial businesses in the neighborhoods. Concerns that range
<br />from air pollution and smoke, toxic release exposures, idling trucks on residential
<br />streets, lead exposure, illegal storage, unpermitted uses, loud noise at night, and other
<br />property maintenance pose an immediate public health threat that is straining public
<br />resources to continuously investigate and address these matters. Six months ago, a fire
<br />incident at Macera Crematory, located at 1020 Fuller Street, alarmed neighbors at 9:18
<br />p.m. on August 29, 2023. Neighbors shared with City officials disturbing video of high
<br />flames escaping the stack on the rooftop, the screeching noise that went nonstop for 10
<br />minutes, and what they described as a foul odor attributed to the fire. As City staff
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