HomeMy WebLinkAboutCorrespondence - CS #1
Orozco, Norma
From:Irma Jauregui <irmapj@yahoo.com>
Sent:Tuesday, May 18, 2021 3:46 PM
To:eComment
Subject:Cypress Fire house and community
Honorable Mayor and Council members
We The Santa Ana Neighborhood Alliance ask that you please reconsider the sale of the Firehouse on Cypress and look
to the future of the great possibilities of benefitting our community with it. The opportunities it can provide are so many
and here are some of the concepts that we have starting working on.
First and foremost, crime has been a serious issue for many, many years!
Since there are 4000 Sq ft, at least dedicate the back 1000sq ft. for a police substation and since there is an alley there,
the access is perfect for their use.
I have already approached the brokers for the dollar store if they would be open for parking for a community center if
we had a police substation and they were very open and enthusiastic to the idea, and as a matter of fact they have space
for rent, that maybe it might serve in the interim substation to get crime under control while repairs and designs are
being made.
For the other 75% of the building, there are so many great uses!
Since the pandemic we have seen what a great need for technology there is city wide but especially in our densest
neighborhoods and Pacific Park is one of them.
A BiblioTech would be one ideal use combined with tutoring for all ages and opportunities for seniors at designated
hours!
When all this is said and done our area would go thru a positive and wonderful transformation! The side benefits for the
future residents will just increase if crime is eliminated and even the shopping center and general commercial area could
also flourish.
On the contrary, if you sell to a private investor who will be the only one benefitting, even if the exterior is “protected”
and converted into residential of one of the densest neighborhoods, the commercial area in front with its crime
elements will continue as it has been for decades and our children and residents in general will stay the same, even
worse since more density is added and not any more services at all!
I know it’s a long letter, but it’s a big vision that we have and it’s so, so doable because we also worked on the Pacific
Park, that is our pride and joy, and we avoided the disaster of the Normandy shelter that would have destroyed our
businesses and quality of life.
We ask most urgently that you look and share our great vision of truly working together for our community and we
would love to share in that vision that also can come true that we can feel it!
It will be great to help and look for funding from various sources and since their maybe help with opportunity of COVID
funding it would be phenomenal to see what can be achieved together.
Most respectfully,
Irma P Jauregui and Susana Canett Sandoval Santa Ana Healthy Neighborhood Alliance co-founders
Sent from my iPad
1
Orozco, Norma
From:Sandra Pocha Peña <pocha@pocharte.com>
Sent:Tuesday, May 18, 2021 3:37 PM
To:eComment; !City Clerk
Cc:irmapj@yahoo.com; Ginelle Gmail Hardy
Subject:Closed Session Item: Cypress Fire Station
Attachments:SAVE CYPRESS FS.docx
Importance:High
Hi Daisy,
Would you please distribute my public comment to the full City Council and include it in the public
record?
I have attached it as a word doc and also included it below.
Sincerely,
-- SPS
--
Sandra Peña Sarmiento
"Frontier Arts & Hybrid Culture"
www.pocharte.com
www.ocfilmfiesta.org
714.417.0073
*** Public Comment Below ***
5/18/2021
Re: Closed Session Item - 625 Cypress Ave
Pacific Park/Eastside, Santa Ana, 92701
Dear City Council, City Manager and Staff,
I am writing to ask for your support in halting the sale of the historic Cypress Fire Station. As a Pacific Park/Eastside
native and neighborhood leader, I want to emphasize that Pacific Park/Eastside is one of the densest and most
underserved communities in Santa Ana. The 92701 zip code has been the site for great hardship with little to support or
uplift residents.
I am also writing you as a member of the Santa Ana Healthy Neighborhood Alliance (SAHNA) whose efforts to Save the
historic Cypress Fire Station have included multiple neighborhoods and spanned over a decade of advocacy in our city.
Rehabilitating the Cypress Fire Station and restoring it to public use could help the entire neighborhood blossom and
surrounding neighborhoods to thrive. Please retain this important connection to our City History by removing the
Cypress Fire Station from the Surplus Land list and rehabbing it as a public site for public services.
1
Our SAHNA member Irma Jauregui has spoken with the Real Estate broker for the Dollar Tree lot and asked for their
cooperation in developing the Cypress Fire Station as a community space. They have enthusiastically agreed to help with
parking.
Rehabilitating the Cypress Fire Station is key to bringing safety, security and quality of life back to this part of South
Main. By working together with the City, SAPD and our Community Partners, and Elected Leaders, we can turn the
blighted firehouse into a major asset for our residents.
In the transition from it’s current decayed state to a functional commercial site that provides a community benefit,
SAHNA proposes the following:
1. Residential Use – Art Residency for distinguished Artist to reside in and teach at the site for a period of
2-4 years in partnership with a regional art or educational institution. If the property is occupied, then it
won’t be necessary to have the city spend $18,000 a month in security.
2. Transitional Use – As a Historical and Arts resource space in partnership with a regional art, historical
and/or educational institution. As Commercial Permits are formalized, public uses can be diversified.
3. Long Term Use – As a Digital Library, History and Arts resource space in partnership with regional art,
historical, technology and/or educational institution, foundation or corporation. As funding enables
capital investments in computers, construction, furnishings and fixtures, a fully fleshed out Digital
Library and Community Resource Hub emerges with practical service hours (10-8pm), parking
partnership with Dollar Tree, and local Multi-Generational clientele.
We additionally ask for:
A Steering Committee to guide fundraising and firehouse center completion
The authority to fundraise and develop resources for firehouse development, such as a website
Support in installing a $400 ring camera system and onsite wifi service
Closing the “security fence” on all sides as it currently is not secured or installed right
Allowing access to the property so that we may obtain work estimates as staff has indicated no
residential or commercial work estimates have been obtained so far
I also want to emphasize that members of the Eastside/Pacific Park Neighborhood and surrounding community have
been advocating for the Cypress Fire Station since the last non-profit, Re-Building Together Orange County left in 2013.
This community has mobilized over 60 pages of email correspondence with City Staff that has gone unaddressed.
Please remedy 9+ years of neglect.
Please don’t sell our History.
Please invest in Pacific Park/Eastside and help us all rise together.
Sincerely,
--- Sandra “Pocha” Pena Sarmiento
Pacific Park/Eastside Leader, Member of SAHNA
910 E. Grant St, Santa Ana, CA 92701
2
Orozco, Norma
From: Ginelle Hardy <ginelleann@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2021 12:30 PM
To: Sarmiento, Vicente
Subject: Cypress Fire Station_A Good Investment
My humble opinion -
CYPRESS FIRE STATION
• Historic preservation rehabilitation
& adaptive reuse
creating a Community Center,
Art, History & Technology
Learning Hub
meets Strategic Plan
& General Plan objectives.
• Education programs,
accessible services,
bridging the digital divide
are an investment in community
making this endeavor
a good investment of stimulus funds
to REVIVE SANTA ANA!
Ginelle Hardy
Orozco, Norma
From: Pat Coleman <pcoleman6@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2021 11:23 AM
To: eComment
Subject: Closed Session Item - Sale Of Cypress Street Fire Station
Dear City Council Members,
Please reconsider your sale of the public's property at the old Cypress Street fire station.
In the past, some of you have expressed a desire to support Santa Ana Neighborhood groups. Please do it. Do not
declare a public property surplus without consulting the community of people who could most benefit from that
resource.
Do not declare a public property "surplus" because it has fallen into disrepair. That is a problem with maintenance, not
an overabundance of public lands.
This historic building could be such an asset for its community —after school homework center, library, legal aid or social
services center. And what about a community health center? We have seen a great need for that, and there might just
be funding for it.
A developer came to you with a vision for how he could benefit from the property. He reimagined it. The needs and
imaginations of the people of Santa Ana are at least as valuable, please acknowledge and support them.
Sincerely,
Patricia Coleman
Orozco, Norma
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
Paul Guzman Sr. <paulsr@plbuilding.com>
Tuesday, May 18, 2021 12:07 PM
Orozco, Norma
CYPRESS STREET FIRSTATION. MY REMARKS ARE AS FOLLOW. I WAS INFORMED
THAT THE CITY PLAN TO SELL THE FIRE STATION. 1, IN 2010 APPROACHED THE CITY
ABOUT USNG THE STATION AS A COMMUNITY CENTER. I WANTED IT FOR A
COMMUNITY CENTER RETIREES GROUPS.
Orozco, Norma
From: Ginelle Hardy <ginelleann@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2021 3:20 AM
To: eComment
Subject: Public Comment: Cypress Fire Station, Closed Session Item
Above is a current image of the city of Santa Ana's FIRST & OLDEST fire station, the Cypress Fire Station,
Engine Co. No. 4, (predating Engine
Co. No.I by one year). The Cypress Fire Station has an esteemed historical designation as a "KEY" structure
listed on the Santa Ana Register
of Historic Properties. Built 1928, the Cypress Fire Station's Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival architectural
style is historically significant as an
example of a typical architectural style of Government Buildings at the time. Located at 625 S. Cypress Avenue
in Pacific Park/Eastside
neighborhood that was Ward 2, the Cypress Fire Station sits between single -story Queen Anne Victorian
architectural style homes of small
massing and scale. One home has been recently covered in stucco losing much of it's architectural character
defining features, while the other
continues to sport it's Queen Anne characteristic wood siding including intricate bands of "fish scale" shingles
that can be seen in the eaves and
in a wide frieze under the gable ends. On February 4, 2002 a DPR 523A survey concludes that, "...although
converted to a Community Center
the Cypress Fire Station retains it's overall integrity and clearly conveys it's former use ..."
May 17, 2021
Honorable Mayor Sarmiento, Mayor pro tern Penaloza, Councilmembers Phan, Lopez, Mendoza, Bacerra, and
Hernandez,
I am writing to you about my concern for the city of Santa Ana's FIRST & OLDEST fire station, the Cypress
Fire Station, a historic resource that
is City owned. We have seen and know that private builders/developers are not good stewards of our City`s
historic assets, and why should they
be when their primary interest is never historic preservation. So why do we continue as a City to look for
private developers to take our
irreplaceable historic buildings off our hands?
I am proposing that we step back and look to meeting objectives found in the Strategic Plan and, pending
adoption by City Council, the new
General Plan. I believe both documents seek active engagement, strive to include all community stakeholders,
and have provisions for historic
preservation of properties, neighborhoods and districts - Citywide, north, east, south & west. Based on these
documents a strong argument
can be made to withdraw the RFP, stop the sale to a private entity, and return the historic Cypress Fire Station
for use by the community.
FY20/21-24/25 Strategic Plan's "Word Cloud" represents Santa Ana resident's input on the City's 5-year
Vision. The word "historic" is right on
top of the vision -word -cloud. Not only that, but listed in Priorities for the City's Strategic Plan are Themes,
including the prioritized theme,'
"HISTORIC PRESERVATION". With this in mind it seems obvious that to meet these objectives we must
SAVE Santa Ana's FIRST & OLDEST
fire station, the Cypress Fire Station - as there is no extra or substitute for this esteemed designated historic
"KEY" structure listed on the
Santa Ana Register of Historic Properties, and there will be no second chance to save the one and only Cypress
Fire Station from a
private builder/developer. In fact there are almost zero opportunities to meet the Strategic Plan's & General
Plan's historic preservation
objectives presented by this important single historic building in a neighborhood setting in the foreseeable
future!
Saving the Cypress Fire Station from a sale to private hands, and creating and establishing a City owned
Community Center/ Art, History &
Technology Learning Hub located in a City owned rehabilitated for adaptive reuse historic Cypress Fire Station
can uniquely serve to help meet
and fulfill many of the FY20/21-24/25 Strategic Plan's goals including the following:
• Threats/Trends - would be serving a population density that is the 4th most dense city in the nation, where
there is over development and
population density that is skewed younger than many CA cities, where it's anticipated seniors will be aging
in -place, and where there is a lack
of open space (recreation space outside of an individual's dwelling)
• Weaknesses - can help bridge the gap where there is not enough digital services, can help improve inequalities
in education as compared to
other cities in Orange County
• Opportunities - meeting an opportunity for Green Development (adaptive reuse of buildings is a form of
sustainable urban regeneration),
a huge opportunity for Preservation of History and Culture, creation of more Recreation and Community
Centers, providing Community
Education & Engagement, bringing Accessibility to Educational Institutions (by way of a learning hub located
in a community center)
Compounded with meeting values forming the basis of the new General Plan's Historic Element, adaptive reuse
of the City owed Cypress
Fire Station can meet ALL of the historic preservation considerations listed as follows:
• Rich cultural and architectural history
• Unique neighborhoods
• Protect existing neighborhoods from intrusive development
• Maintain character, sense of place, and identity
• Pride in neighborhoods
• Adaptive reuse of buildings
Rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of the City owned historic Cypress Fire Station located in the Pacific
Park/Eastside neighborhood can
meet and fulfill objectives and goals set forth in the city of Santa Ana's Strategic Plan and General Plan's
Historic Element. Creation and
establishment of a Community Center/ Art, History & Technology Learning Hub in the historic Cypress Fire
Station can meet the perimeters
of an investment in community, education programs, making services more accessible and bridging the digital
divide. The possibility
of accomplishing so many good outcomes for the City and community under an umbrella of a single project
would be a good investment
of stimulus funds from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to help Revive Santa Ana!
Now is the time to find a way to reverse course and SAVE the historic Cypress Fire Station from being sold off
to a private entity.
This letter is comprised of my personal opinions.
Thank you for your concern and help in this most important matter,
Ginelle Hardy
ginelleann cggmail.com