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

The NIMBYs won’t be able to stop the proposed townhomes at 2525 N. Main St.

Posted on April 21, 2022 by Editor Posted in Development, Housing, Jessie Lopez, Phil Bacerra, Santa Ana Leave a comment

Nationwide homebuilder Taylor Morrison hosted a community meeting about the new proposed townhome community at 2525 N. Main St. last night at the First Congregational Church of Santa Ana, located in the Park Santiago Neighborhood. This was done in order to comply with the Santa Ana Sunshine Ordinance.

Interestingly the Council Member who represents Ward 3, which includes the Park Santiago Neighborhood, Jessie Lopez, was not at the community meeting. But Mayor Pro Tem Phil Bacerra was. Two candidates who ran against Lopez were also at the meeting.

Lopez has no reason not to vote to change the zoning so that the townhome project can be built. She has few supporters in Park Santiago and will be in office for the rest of her four-year term. She can vote for the zoning change knowing that this will curry favor with the developer – and result in campaign contributions when she runs again in a few more years.

Who do you support for the O.C. Board of Supervisors in District 2?

Bacerra won his City Council seat with support from the NIMBYs in Park Santiago but his next election will be district-specific so these folks will be of no use to him. He too then can vote for the zoning change and not sweat any repercussions.

What about the rest of the City Council? Now that we have ward-specific City Council elections they can all vote for the zoning change and not worry about antagonizing any voters.

Why would they not support this project? The developer only wants to build about 81 townhomes on a 4.38-acre site. The previously proposed apartment project would have featured at least 256 units.

The townhomes will start at about $800K and add badly needed new housing stock to our city. The residents that will buy these townhomes will surely be well-heeled and will be a boon to the area businesses.

The NIMBYs keep pushing for a new office building at 2525 which is insane on many levels. For one thing office buildings generate far more traffic than residential units. Moreover there is zero demand for more office space in Santa Ana. Thanks to COVID-19 many folks now can work from home and as a result there are empty office buildings all over our city.

This townhome project will also add millions of dollars in new taxes to the city’s coffers, which can’t hurt.

Most of the NIMBYs are retired and barely contribute anything to the city’s coffers. Quite a few of them inherited their homes and are slowly dying off or moving – selling their homes for huge amounts of money. The City Council should ignore them and do what is right for our city.

Can the NIMBYs come up with even one vote against the zoning change? Who would that be exactly?

Consider that the developer hired the lobbying firm run by former Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle. That means he will be working hard behind the scenes to buy off the City Council Members.

This battle is already over for the Park Santiago NIMBYs.

A fire broke out this evening at 2525 N. Main St.

Posted on April 5, 2021 by Editor Posted in Fires, OCFA, Santa Ana Leave a comment

A two alarm fire broke out this evening, at a out 7:45 p.m., at the dilapidated office building at 2525 North Main Street in Santa Ana, according to the OCFA.

Demolition had started this morning at that same structure.

The fire was knocked down and confined to the first floor of the abandoned building. Investigators are at the scene.

Approximately 55 firefighters were on scene finishing a search of the vast spaces inside. The OCFA reported no victims found at this time and no injuries reported.

The Orange Fire Department assisted at the scene as did the SAPD.

The SAPD has blocked Edgewood at N. Bush St. and is diverting cars entering the Park Santiago Neighborhood down Bush St. to Santa Clara. It appears that they blocked off N. Main St. and are diverting the traffic through the neighborhood.

Demolition began today at 2525 N. Main St.

Posted on April 5, 2021 by Editor Posted in Civic Affairs, Development, Real Estate, Santa Ana 4 Comments

Police sirens blared in the Park Santiago Neighborhood this morning as SAPD police officers cleared the homeless out of the empty, dilapidated building at 2525 N. Main St., in Santa Ana Then the heavy equipment moved in and the long-awaited demolition of the building began.

Police vehicles stayed on site at the north, south and west end of the facility to ensure that no one would enter and get injured during the demolition, which could take up to three days to complete.

By now there should have been a luxury apartment project at this site but the neighborhood NIMBYs succeeded in fighting off the developer as they were able to flip the votes of Council Members Vince Sarmiento and David Penaloza, who had previously supported the apartment project.

Sarmiento is now the Mayor and he is unlikely to change his mind about the apartment project.

The NIMBYs have made it clear they prefer the entire lot be turned into a parking lot for the Discovery Cube. That is unlikely to happen even though the develop has already sold a portion of the property to the Discovery Cube for that project.

Most likely the developer will try again to build a housing project in the future but will perhaps scale his plans down further or switch from apartments to homes.

The entire city lost out on considerable tax revenue when the project was terminated.

Demolition of the dilapidated office building at 2525 N. Main St. to start soon

Posted on March 27, 2021 by Editor Posted in Development, Public Works, Santa Ana Leave a comment

The City of Santa Ana has announced the pending demolition of the dilapidated office building located at 2525 N. Main St. The owner of that building will be spearheading the demolition.

By now there should have been a luxury apartment building at that location but the NIMBYs in the adjacent Park Santiago Neighborhood succeeded in cancelling that development when current Mayor of Santa Ana Vince Sarmiento flipped his vote, after fellow Councilman David Penaloza did the same.

Stopping the development however did not pan out well for the neighborhood as the empty building has become a refuge for drug users and other vagrants. The developer initially paid for security guards at night then tried to just board up the building but the local homeless kept breaking in. They could be seen at night streaming into the building.

The City of Santa Ana granted a demolition permit on March 15, 2021. The scope of the demolition application includes the demolition of the building and capping of onsite utilities. No subsurface soil or site grading work were approved under the permit issued by the City. After the approved demolition work has been completed, the site is to be fenced, secured, and maintained on an ongoing basis.

The property owner anticipates preparation work for the demolition of the building will begin the week of March 29th and will start with the clearing of the building interior and capping of utilities. The demolition of the building will follow soon after.

According to the City of Santa Ana, the property owner of 2525 N. Main is entitled to and applied for a permit to demolish the building to address the nuisance concerns on the property. A demolition permit is an over-the-counter permit that may be obtained by any property owner prior to initiating the demolition of an existing structure.

The City of Santa Ana also stated that the property is a public nuisance and has been a source of numerous community and public safety concerns since 2019. The City adheres to code enforcement procedures from the Santa Ana Municipal Code to obtain compliance by the property owner. The City issued multiple Administrative Citations and fines culminating in a Notice to Abate Public Nuisance issued to the owner by the City on February 4, 2021. As part of the due process, the City also presented the Notice to Abate at a Public Nuisance Hearing conducted on March 15, 2021. The City is awaiting the determination by a Hearing Officer, which is due within 30 days from the date of the hearing. If the decision is in the City’s favor, it will enable the City to pursue an inspection and abatement warrant with the courts.

The City of Santa Aa did not change its enforcement procedures on this property from standard protocols to abate a public nuisance on private properties. Similar to 2525 N. Main, the locations listed below were recent vacant-property sites of continual complaints associated with transients, trash, debris, and the property owners’ inability to properly secure or maintain. All received notices and escalated fines and resulting in a Notice to Abate issued by the City. These property owners, as with the property owner of 2525 N. Main, opted to demolish the boarded structures. This action greatly reduced the city calls for service at those locations.

1821 N. Grand Ave., (Marie Calendar’s site)
2107 E. 17th St. (Knowlwood’s)
1703 E. 17th St. (Monroe’s Furniture)
2056 W. Civic Center (residential)

The demolition of the site will not allow the previously approved apartment project to be developed on the property. The demolition permit has nothing to do with the contested project planned on the site. The approval of the apartment project was rescinded by the City Council in May of 2020.

The demolition of the site will not allow a new housing development to occur. The demolition of the building does not change the fact that the current Professional zoning of the property does not permit any residential uses.

Noise sources associated with demolition activities are prohibited between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. on weekdays, including Saturday, or any time on Sunday or a federal holiday. For noise concerns relating to demolition activities you may call (714) 834-4211.

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!