80A - JT PUBLIC HRG-320 WEST FOURTH

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Historic Resource Impacts Courthouse Lofts Project 320 West Fourth Street Santa Ana, California "Contributive" on the Santa Ana Register of Historic Properties based on its exterior design and lack of historic interior features. Also constructed in 1915 was the Beaux Arts style West End Theater at 322- 326 West Fourth Street (# 218 on Downtown Historic District Map). This theater was one of Santa Ana's earliest movie houses and served as a community playhouse. The building is clad in white ceramic brick, accented by green colored bricks on both the front fayade of West Fourth Street and the side elevation along Birch Street. The symmetrical fayade is divided into three bays by raised, two-story piers delineated in green ceramic brick. The central and largest bay contains the recessed theater entrance at the ground level and above features a large arched window divided into six vertical panels. A stringcourse and cornice define a second-story frieze. This frieze consists of a diamond pattern in green brick over the side bays with onion- shape ornaments above the piers and a panel inscribed with the theater's name above. Mid-century alterations included a metal screen over the fayade. In the early 1980s the metal screen was removed and the structure's decorative ceramic brick fayade was rehabilitated. The West End Theater is listed as a "Landmark" building on the Santa Ana Register of Historic Properties. The lot on which the subject project is proposed, now known as 320 West Fourth Street, has contained a number of buildings since it was first developed. In the late 19th century shed and warehouse structures stood on the lot but were replaced by one-story frame buildings by the early 20th century. In the second quarter of the 20th century, these frame structures were replaced by a two story brick commercial structure that filled the lot which subsequently burned and was demolished in 1978. The demolition exposed the west wall of the Semi-Tropic Hotel building, which contains ghost-like remnants of earlier painted advertisements that appear to date from the first few decades of the 20th Century. Description of Proposed Project The Courthouse Lofts project consists of new construction of a mixed use building on the empty parcel located at 320 West Fourth Street in Santa Ana's Downtown Historic District. The property is owned by Urban West Strategies who has proposed construction of a structure with commercial uses at the street level and residential on the upper levels. The proposed project, a six-story building with basement, would encompass the entire lot with a ground floor dedicated to commercial and service uses and five stories of housing in the form of condominium "live/work" lofts. The building is "L" shaped in plan and takes up most of its 41 x 100-foot lot. The proposed building is six stories high with a flat roof. The building's height, to Kaplan Chen Kaplan 7 April 20, 2006 80A-86