HomeMy WebLinkAbout5 - PUBLIC COMMENT_MAJORFrom:Flores, Dora
To:Bernal, Sarah; Fregoso, Vince; Thai, Minh; Gutierrez, Fatima; Pezeshkpour, Ali; !City Clerk
Subject:FW: 3-30-2020 PLANNING COMMISSION PUBLIC COMMENT item #5.
Date:Monday, March 30, 2020 12:54:03 PM
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Good Afternoon,
The following communication pertaining to the Planning Commission meeting, has been
received for your review and consideration.
Kind Regards,
Dora Flores|Support Staff
Clerk of the Council Office | 20 Civic Center Plaza | Santa Ana, CA 92701
714-647-5278 | dflores5@santa-ana.org
www.santa-ana.org
This e-mail (and attachments, if any) may be subject to the California Public Records Act, and as such, may, therefore, be
subject to public disclosure unless otherwise exempt under the Act.
From: Connie Major [mailto:conniemajor@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2020 12:47 PM
To: eComment <ecomment@santa-ana.org>
Subject: 3-30-2020 PLANNING COMMISSION PUBLIC COMMENT item #5.
3-30-2020 PLANNING COMMISSION PUBLIC COMMENT item #5.
Dear Commissioners, My name is Connie Major and I live in the Washington Square
neighborhood. I'm not happy with staff wanting you to approve the construction of this 37-
story tower as proposed today.
Our city's General Plan (GP) has several goals that are currently not going to be met by voting
yes tonight.
GP Goal 1. to promote a balance of land uses to address basic community needs. In two ways
this is not happening and requires a no vote tonight:
· First, the developer is opting out of building affordable house units in the tower and is
proposing to pay in-lieu fees, a buy-out. At the Sunshine Meeting he pointed out
proudly that he was including affordable housing units. With the city more and more
built out, each housing construction needs to accept and include it's minimum number
of affordable units! Commissioners, please do not accept in-lieu fees when we have a
great opportunity to meet basic community needs in a small building footprint.
· Second, with 415 proposed housing units and the other 1,731 housing units approved
or in process in the mid town area, there is no question that to meet Goal 1 of meeting
the community needs, there needs to be park land developed near this tower, not just
the hard scape designed at the tower's base. I propose land used as asphalt parking lots
now be converted to a people play park and a dog park and give those who would park
there access to the parking structure. Or make the top floor of the parking structure a
green park; the developer's staff mentioned it as an option. This city is so park poor,
lets not make it worse by doing nothing.
Also, so much has changed in this city along with the 'coming soon' additional total of 2,146
housing units. By voting yes tonight you are saying that using a 16year old environmental
impact report and traffic study is viable information for today. How is that possible? The
traffic mitigation of making Main St. 6 lanes and adding a right turn land at 17th St. are a start
for moving traffic north to the 5 fry. But there will be lots of drivers cutting through the east
neighborhoods of French Court, French Park and Logan to get the the 17th St on ramp. There
will be those who drop south and head to the Grand Ave. on ramp. And lets not forget the
number of drivers who will want to head west and cut through Willard and Washington
Square neighborhoods to reach Bristol. There need to be a plan for neighborhood protection.
Residents need to feel save, please vote no tonight and get these issues properly resolved.
Thank you.