80A - JT PUBLIC HRG-320 WEST FOURTH

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Historic Resource Impacts Courthouse Lofts Project 320 West Fourth Street Santa Ana, California The Courthouse Lofts building is proposed to be six stories high, The structure will be located along the historic Fourth Street corridor which features one other six-story building, and three four-story buildings all located within two-and-one-half blocks of the subject site, all which are contributing buildings to the Downtown Historic District. The subject block has buildings of varying heights, which is the norm along the historic corridor. Only the south side of the 400 block of West Fourth has a consistent roofline height. The National Register District is based on the eclecticism of architectural styles, building types and clearly stated that the taller buildings "complement" the body of two-story business blocks. The proposed Courthouse Lofts would add only one taller structure to the Historic District. It is not located on the one single block (the south side of 400 West Fourth) that has the only consistent two-story roofline along the Fourth Street corridor. Rather, the proposed project is on a typical block that has a range of building heights and massing. Each of the two blocks to the east, the 200 and 100 West Fourth Streets on the south sides have at least one taller building as does the 100 West block on the north side. The height of the proposed building is consistent with the patterns within the Historic District, which as the National Register Nomination states is "predominantly two story business blocks... complemented by a scattering of taller structures, the largest of which is six stories." This project, at 6-stories and 68 feet tall would be shorter than the contributing 6-story First National Bank Building (83 feet tall). It is a single building and it is within the historic de facto height limit of the Downtown Historic District. In terms of massing, there is a wide range of buildings in the Historic District. Some are one-story buildings on narrow lots, others are tall buildings on narrow lots, yet others are one-story buildings on double lots with broad frontages. The proposed building rises directly from the lot line like the typical building on the commercial blocks. Located on oa varied block in terms of street frontage and lot coverage, the massing of this building is within the range of building envelopes in the Historic District. The massing of the Courthouse Lofts project steps back from the street at the upper floors to help lower the apparent height at the street. These step backs should be composed so that the overall building retains simplicity of massing. The design of the proposed building features three lower floors, roughly corresponding to the height of adjacent buildings, fronted at the street with a fayade of red sandstone, the masonry cladding echoing other buildings in the district. The facade is divided into three bays at a scale similar to other storefronts along the street. To allow access and view to the painted wall slgnage, there is a small gap between the Courthouse Lofts street fac;:ade and the adjacent building to the east. The purpose of this design feature is to reveal a portion of the ghost advertisement on the adjacent Semi-Tropic Hotel Kaplan Chen Kaplan 12 April 20, 2006 80A-91