CORRESPONDENCE - 75A SEXLINGER FARMHOUSE

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Patrick Mitchell 4117`h Street, Norco CA 92860 (951, )707 -7127 p.mitche1167 @yahoo.com Santa Ana City Council 20 Civic Center, POB 1988 Santa Ana, CA 92702 March 03, 2014 Re: Historic Sexlinger Orchard and Farmhouse Honorable Mayor and City Council, As many of you know I have a long history with the City of Santa Ana and care deeply for its people and landscapes. As the city's Naturalist for almost 10 years I built strong relationships with many neighborhoods, community groups and individuals including some of you. I was successful at securing funding to build the Santiago Park Nature Reserve and the Santiago Creek Wildlife and Watershed Center as well as habitat restoration and landscape improvements throughout the city. I personally conducted hundreds of educational programs for thousands of Santa Ana residents. Currently I manage one of the few remaining commercial agricultural operations within the City of Santa Ana's boundaries —the Gospel Swamp Farm at the Heritage Museum of Orange County located at 3101 West Harvard Street. As the manager of this educational farm, I work with dozens of High School Students from Godinez Fundamental, Valley and Santa Ana High Schools, providing free hands - on programs in everything from composting and soils to planting, fertilizing and harvesting. Some students even learn marketing and sales as we seek buyers for the produce grown at the farm. Programs like these show a marked improvement in students' core academic studies as well as build character, self- confidence and self - reliance. I have also personally witnessed cross - generational connections as students find that they have something important to share with their parents and grandparents many of whom worked in agriculture themselves. Each of you has an important decision to make on Tuesday evening. Before you is the opportunity to expand the quality, quantity and content of education programs like those described above and make them available for thousands of students and residents of Santa Ana. Or you can approve a development that will provide significant funding for hundreds of students in Orange and Irvine only a few of whom may live within the city of Santa Ana. I am writing to ask you to preserve the Sexlinger Orchard and Farmhouse by directing staff to include a true preservation alternative in the EIR. I believe that a mixture of development and preservation can be accomplished to best serve the residents of Santa Ana, the property owners and this one -of -a -kind