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HRC No. 2024-07 – Levengood-Bist House (1205 South Birch Street) September 5, 2024 Page 3 4 5 1 0 property, staff moved forward with a public hearing for consideration of a re-categorization of the property from “Contributive” to “Key,” due to its historical association with its former owners and occupants Lisa and Brian Bist, and that it be renamed to reflect the Bists’ associations with the property. Therefore, staff provides analysis below substantiating the request for re-categorization for the HRC’s consideration. In June and July 2024, staff prepared an evaluation of the property’s historical significance due to its associations with the Bists. Research for the 2024 reevaluation relied principally on the oral testimony of Commissioner Christy, HRC Chair Tim Rush, and Guy Ball, an associate of the Bists. Staff briefly interviewed each of these figures in June and July 2024, in addition to reviewing testimony provided by Commissioner Christy recorded during the HRC’s May 8, 2024, hearing. The testimony was supplemented with Internet research. The testimony indicated Brian and Lisa Bist’s earliest historically significant activities were in the area of neighborhood improvement activism, which the Bists began earnestly in the late 1980s and 1990s. In this area, the Bists were important contributors to the founding and early operation of the Wilshire Square Neighborhood Association (WSNA), which was established in 1989 to promote the improvement and maintenance of the City’s Wilshire Square neighborhood. Brian was particularly involved in organizing of the WSNA, serving as a founding co-chair and contributing to the drafting of its by-laws. The Bists’ work with the WSNA was a springboard to involvement in the Communication Linkage Forum (known informally as Com-Link), described in one source as “an umbrella organization of neighborhood associations” in Santa Ana (Adams 2007). Brian, along with Ball, helped to found Com-Link in 1989. The organization’s purpose was then, and remains, to provide local residents and neighborhood associations a neutral forum in which they could discuss issues facing their neighborhoods among themselves and with City staff and elected officials (City of Santa Ana 2024). In addition to Brian’s work to establish Com-Link, Lisa served on the body’s Neighborhood Improvement and Code Enforcement (NICE) committee, which furthered Com-Link’s objectives by targeting apparent blight in the city (Adams 2007). According to Commissioner Christy, Lisa’s main contributions while serving on the NICE committee included initiatives to establish a landscaping ordinance and a commercial code enforcement program in the City. Lisa was also involved in efforts to assist business owners on Main Street in rehabilitating their building façades by lobbying to secure redevelopment funds for the financing of improvements. Com-Link continues to operate to this day and counts 60 neighborhood associations as participants (City of Santa Ana 2024). In 1998, Lisa was elected to the first of two consecutive terms on the Santa Ana City Council, serving until 2006. As a councilmember, she continued to champion neighborhood improvement efforts and built relationships with important businesses and institutions operating in the city. According to Commissioner Christy, as a member of the