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<br />To: Ms. Hally Soboleske, Associate Planner <br />City of Santa Ana Planning Division <br /> <br />From: David Kaplan <br />Kaplan Chen Kaplan <br /> <br />Re: Aesthetic Impact Evaluation <br />320 West Fourth Street - West End Lofts Project <br /> <br />AESTHETICS <br /> <br />Setting: Landform, Development and Building Form <br /> <br />This memo is a review of the West End Lofts project proposed for 320 <br />West Fourth Street to determine if there are any adverse environmental <br />impacts related to aesthetic considerations. <br /> <br />The site is in an older, generally flat urban area with a variety of buildings <br />containing a range of uses, predominately commercial and office space. <br />Building sizes and styles vary, but there is a continuous assemblage of <br />commercial storefronts at the property line on both sides of West Fourth <br />Street to the east and a continuous line on the South side to the west. <br />Across the street to the north is a multi-storied office building, set back <br />from the street on a very large parcel. Immediately adjacent to the west of <br />the site is the West End Theater building at the southeast corner of Fourth <br />Street and Birch. To the immediate east of the site is a two story Semi- <br />Tropic Hotel Building. The two flanking buildings, both contributors to the <br />historic district, were built with blank party walls facing the proposed site. <br />Advertising signs were painted on the eastern side wall, repainted at <br />various times and left intact when a building was built on the project site. <br />When the building burned and was demolished around 1978, the <br />remnants of the painted advertisements were uncovered. <br /> <br />West Fourth Street at Main Street was the original commercial center of <br />Santa Ana starting in the 1880s. Further growth and development <br />occurred in the 1920s with the development of taller buildings such as the <br />First National Bank Building and the Santora Building. The area was built <br />up with a series of 4-6 story buildings mixed in with one and two story <br />buildings. Later development along Fourth Street included the 10 story <br />Ronald Reagan Courthouse Building and the mid-rise bank building <br />further west. <br /> <br />EXHIBIT 5 <br />1 <br />80A-60 <br />