New Santa Ana | Tag Archives: 2525 N. Main St.

Sarmiento caught lying about his support for the 2525 N. Main St. apartment project

Posted on October 27, 2020 by Editor Posted in 2020 Elections, Vince Sarmiento 1 Comment

Santa Ana Mayoral Candidate Vince Sarmiento sent out a mailer yesterday that showed quite a bit of nerve. In the mailer Sarmiento said that he was “the only Santa Ana Mayoral candidate working to protect the north Santa Ana neighborhoods.”

That is of course a bold-faced lie. Three of the Mayoral Candidates – Vince Sarmiento, Ceci Iglesias and Jose Solorio, all voted yes, in favor of rezoning and approving the 2525 project.

In fact all of them voted in favor of the project twice: on the first vote reading of the ordinance and again on the second reading. They did so after two years of debate, countless meetings, hundreds of emails, and hundreds of residents coming to council meetings voicing reasoned opposition to this proposed project.

Sarmiento flip-flopped on 2525 only after the was able to gather thousands of petition signatures on a referendum to stop the project. At that point Sarmiento, Iglesis, and David Penaloza all reversed their previous positions and then voted to stop the rezoning. Solorio however “abstained.”

The fact of the matter is that of those running for Mayor the only ones who did not support 2525 are Claudia Alvarez, Mark Lopez and George Collins.

Incidentally we hear that Park Santiago neighborhood leader Dale Helvig, who led the effort against 2525, is going to endorse Alvarez this week. She already had the support of former Santa Ana Planning Commissioner Don Cribb, who lives in the Park Santiago neighborhood.

The owners of the 2525 N. Main St. site will dedicate the property to serve the entire Santa Ana community

Posted on April 13, 2020 by Editor Posted in Cecilia Iglesias, Development, Housing, Parks and Recreation, Ryan Ogulnick, Santa Ana 4 Comments

Santa Ana – Santa Ana City Councilwoman Cecilia Iglesias reached out to the project developer, Ryan Ogulnick, to broker a resolution to the impasse at the 2525 N. Main St. luxury apartment development project.

Iglesias has now secured a commitment from Ogulnick to continue his plan to provide parking for the Discovery Cube of Orange County while also using the remaining lot at 2525 N. Main St. to benefit the entire community.

Iglesias commented:

My commitment as your Councilwoman is to put the needs of the community and residents first. My vote for the development at 2525 Main Street was honest as I believed this project would add to the safety and security of this neighborhood. It would also provide the added support to the Discovery Cube. Since my election to the City Council in 2018, I have tried to bring consensus to both sides of the project to ensure a win-win situation. I have communicated with community leaders and Mr. Ogulnik, the owner and developer of 2525, throughout the process. Mr. Ogulnik sincerely wants a benefit to the community with this development.
At the end of January, the residents took a stand to work together and support each other. I commend everyone’s effort. This message has prompted Mr. Ogulnik to reconsider his position on the project. Through continuous communication with Mr. Ogulnik, I am happy to report that he has agreed to continue working with community leaders and residents to ensure that this site becomes something that will benefit Santa Ana residents.
One important takeaway from this project is that it has brought Santa Ana residents together – neighbors supporting neighbors. I would like to encourage the Santa Ana community to continue standing together to do what benefits the entire city. There are issues that we are still facing that need everyone’s support. I ask that we continue working together as a community and put aside political rhetoric and partisan politics. I strongly believe that we are stronger when we work together and united we will ensure the safety and well being of Santa Ana residents.

Ogulnick commented:

My company has worked for more than two years on revisions to the design of the 2525 N. Main Street project. We believed we had reached a compromise when we designed the site to include parking for The Cube and reducing the unit count. That was not the case. We are strong in our legal positions however, we have reached a point in this process that we want to find something that works for all residents of the community.
I want to thank Councilwoman Cecilia Iglesias for her continued leadership in ensuring that we find a solution that will benefit everyone. My understanding is that there is interest by the community and residents in general for additional Park space. We will continue to work with Park Santiago neighbors, the City, community leaders, and The Cube to find a swift solution that will end the dispute over the appropriate land use for this site.

Two local residents also commented on these developments:

Mike Tardif (Ward 3 Resident):

Although this project is not in Councilwoman Iglesias’ ward, I appreciate that she was the only councilmember willing to meet with both parties to try to find consensus.

Mr. and Mrs. Hendricks (Park Santiago Residents):

Although this project can be of benefit to Park Santiago, the reality is our neighborhood has been divided on this issue since its inception. We are pleased that the Ogulnicks continue to find solutions for the site that will benefit Park Santiago, our neighboring communities, and The Cube. We appreciate the leadership of Councilwoman Ceci Iglesias working with Ryan and Jeremy Ogulnick in this effort to create a solution that the entire community can embrace.

Santa Ana Recall Election campaign signs posted illegally

Posted on March 23, 2020 by Editor Posted in 2020 Elections, Ballot Measures, Cecilia Iglesias, Crime, Elections, Housing, Politics, Santa Ana 6 Comments

Backers of the campaign to recall Santa Ana City Councilwoman Ceci Iglesias have put signs up in a Caltrans work area on N. Main St. and Edgewood, at the 5 Freeway. This is a blatant violation of the Santa Ana political sign ordinance which prohibits putting signs up in public areas. This work zone is also off limits to the public so the recall campaign supporters engaged in trespassing when they put up these signs.

I reported this on the MySantaAna phone app this morning. I expect the signs will be taken down soon.

This is the type of behavior I have come to expect from the recall supporters, who are mostly NIMBYs from the Park Santiago neighborhood and disgruntled members of the Santa Ana Police Officers Association.

The NIMBYs are upset because Iglesias voted to support the development of a luxury apartment building at 2525 N. Main St.

The police officers are upset because Iglesias refused to support their huge pay raise, which passed without her support.

Iglesias was actually instrumental in convincing the developer to greatly reduce the density of this project.

In related news we posted a video, above, of paid signature gatherers who were collecting signatures at Santa Ana College on a related ballot referendum, to overturn the City of Santa Ana’s approval of the 2525 N. Main St. development. The signature gatherers can be heard in the video telling voters that this project will displace the Discovery Cube – a blatant lie as this project will actually result in the Discovery Cube gaining access to badly needed additional parking spaces at 2525 N. Main St.

We also caught the signature gatherers blatantly blocking a public sidewalk in the Park Santiago neighborhood, by the 2525 N. Main St. property. That violation was also reported on the MySantaAna phone app.

The entitled NIMBYs who are supporting these ballot referendums are clearly willing to break the law to get their way. Santa Ana’s voters should remember this when the recall election comes up on May 19.

These same NIMBY’s by the way are currently lying again, on the Nextdoor website, about a recent killing that took place at Santiago Park. The killing happened at the entrance to that park, as a group of suspects attacked and killed a homeless man. The NIMBY’s right away blamed the 2525 N. Main St. development for this murder.

In reality if the 2525 N. Main St. project was actually progressing it would currently be in the framing state and there would be security around the clock. There would be less crime in the Park Santiago neighborhood.

The NIMBY’s recalcitrance and obstinance has actually made the Park Santiago neighborhood less safe!