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<br />Variance No. 2004-18 <br />February 28, 2005 <br />Page 2 <br /> <br />The zoning designation for the site is General Commercial (C2) <br />Third Street and Arterial Commercial (C5) facing First Street. <br />General Plan land use designation is General Commercial (GC) with a <br />area ratio of 0.5. <br /> <br />facing <br />The <br />floor <br /> <br />Surrounding land uses include retail uses to the <br />family residential and commercial uses to the <br />residential uses to the north (Exhibits 1 and 2) . <br /> <br />west and south; single- <br />east; and multi-family <br /> <br />Project Description <br /> <br />The applicant is proposing to construct a 3,881 square foot, single <br />story addition to the rear of a 23,373 square foot attached building <br />within the 100,305 square foot Santa Ana Downtown Plaza. The building <br />is currently occupied by FAMSA, an international department store that <br />sells furniture, appliances, electronics and gift items. The existing <br />Floor Area Ratio (FAR) for the center is 0.28. With the addition, the <br />FAR will be 0.29 (Exhibits 3, 4 and 5). The applicant also proposed to <br />re-stripe the existing parking lot, replace deteriorated or missing <br />landscaping and remove an illegal monument sign. <br /> <br />Architecturally, the applicant proposes an addition that will match <br />elements of the existing building, including the height, exterior finish <br />and decorative tile detailing. <br /> <br />Analysis of the Issues <br /> <br />The Santa Ana Downtown Plaza, built in 1986, is a mixed-use center that <br />includes several restaurants, medical offices and a variety of retail and <br />service uses. At the time of construction, the center complied with the <br />applicable development standards and exceeded the number of parking spaces <br />required. Due to the City's periodic amendment of its code, the center is <br />non-conforming as it no longer complies with the current parking, <br />setbacks, landscape and sign standards. <br /> <br />The Santa Ana Municipal Code (SAMC) allows the expansion of non- <br />conforming buildings when the total floor area of the proposed expansion <br />does not exceed 10 percent of the existing building. Since the proposed <br />addition is 3.9 percent of the existing building area, it is within the <br />allowance for expansion of a non-conforming building. In the case of <br />rehabilitation or expansion of a non-conforming building of less <br /> <br />758-4 <br />