Item 34 - Public Hearing - Appeal Application No. 2024-01 for Construction of a 23’-4” Tall Accessory Building (2221 N Heliotrope Drive)

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fifteen feet from the rear (east) property line, behind an existing six foot high stucco wall and behind existing mature landscaping (e.g., 25-foot tall mature tree and mature bamboo). Therefore, all views of the historic structure along Heliotrope Drive and Santa Clara Avenue would remain unimpaired. A review of the developmental history of the Maharajah House's back yard shows the area has continually evolved since the property's original construction in 1938 and 1939. Available sources, including building permit records and historical aerial photographs, show there were no notable changes to the backyard until the late 1980s or early 1990s. In 1989, a permit was issued for the construction of a new six -foot -tall wall. While the location of the wall is not indicated in building permit information, a 1991 aerial photograph suggests the wall was then erected at its current location, tracing the north property line, approximately 10 to 20 feet north of the wall's apparent historical location. By the time the current owners acquired the property in 2000, the back yard had already undergone substantial alterations to its plan and design. Since around 2003, when the property's current owners received a permit to demolish the swimming pool, there began a program of major alterations to the backyard that included a general remodeling of the area and the installation of a handful of buildings and structures of historical and cultural interest imported from Vietnam. Structures relocated from Vietnam to the back yard include a roughly 20- foot-tall wood pavilion with intricately carved details and a tile -clad roof system; a nineteenth-century, traditional residence with an iron wood structural system; and multiple additional smaller structures of a traditional Vietnamese character. The series of changes to the backyard described above, especially the introduction of the imported buildings and structures from Vietnam, have introduced new architectural and landscape elements with no apparent relevance to the original architecture of the property or to its significant historical associations with the Maharajah. As such, in its current condition, the backyard would be highly unlikely to contribute to the significance of the property, and the addition of a new pavilion would not affect the property's continued eligibility as a Santa Ana Landmark or a contributor to the National Register -listed Floral Park Historic District. Proposed changes, which would be confined to the back yard, also would not affect the historical integrity of the Floral Park Historic District as a whole. As proposed, bamboo would be planted near the north property line to obscure the proposed pavilion from view from the public rights -of -way on Santa Clara Avenue and Heliotrope Drive. While the new bamboo would be clearly visible from the rights -of -way, its appearance alongside the existing wall would be consistent with the internal setting of the Floral Park Historic District, which is characterized in part by its variety of landscaping. As stated in the National Register nomination form for the historic district, "Landscaping varies from building to building, but as this is a point of pride within the neighborhood, landscaping is of high caliber. The majority of Resolution No. 2024-xx Page 12 of 16