Will Santa Ana’s residents benefit from the proposed housing development at 2525 Main St.?

One of our readers asked us recently what the financial benefits of the proposed 2525 Main St. Residential development would be to the people of Santa Ana.

We carefully reviewed the project’s Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and the recent memo by the City of Santa Ana’s Planning staff to determine the benefits to our city’s residents, which partially include:

  • The developer will pay over $5 million dollars in development fees to the City of Santa Ana
  • The developer will also contribute over $6.5 million dollars to the City of Santa Ana to be used to build affordable housing at a location of the City’s choice
  • The development will generate over $3.5 million a year in property taxes – the City of Santa Ana will get almost $700 thousand a year of that tax revenue
  • The new development will increase the City of Santa Ana’s Property Tax revenue for this property by over 1600% over the next 25 years
  • The 25 year total tax revenue to Santa Ana’s General Fund will be over $30 million dollars

The Santa Ana Planning Commission will conduct a work study session on this development at their next meeting, on Nov. 26, at 5:30 p.m. at the City Council’s Chambers. This will be a presentation of the project to the Planning Commissioners by the City Planning Dept.

Considering how broke the City of Santa Ana is I can’t imagine how the Planning Commission is going to be able to oppose this project. Even if they do the Santa Ana City Council is likely to overrule them and approve it.

Art Pedroza Editor
Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.
Art Pedroza

Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.

View Comments

  • It’s all about money- the planning commission and city council don’t care about the aesthetics of Santa Ana. Uncontrollable density will promote more gangs, traffic, shootings- just what Santa Ana is known to have -

  • So the new sales tax in Santa Ana is not enough to help the situation of previous pension agreements? Can you imagine how nice it would be if 2525 North Main would be an area for Discovery Museum parking and an extention of an improved Santiago Park and Wildlife Center? A smart city would do something along these lines. Extention at Main Place is great!

  • This proposed project will definitely bring financial benefits to the city. Santa Ana needs it too! If the 3 new council members (and 2 of the existing ones) stick to their guns about not wanting to use the sales tax increase to fund city expenditures, we definitely need to find additional revenue streams of which property tax and development fees are certainly low hanging fruit on under utilized land currently. I doubt that will happen though even though it should.

    I just can't see a high end (and expensive rent wise) project like this adding to gangs, graffiti, drugs, etc... this is not some complex that is going to be overrun by vagrants like other lower priced and older complexes that the rest of Santa Ana deals with daily. If anything, I would see it adding to that great area of town and solidify its reputation as a gem of the city of which people will be attracted to the area.

    I know that change may be scary for those who live in the area but that area of town actually has room to grow unlike some parts of Santa Ana with higher density. It should be a great economic contributor and bring good quality residents that may even get Trader Joe's to consider a store.

    I am glad that there looks to be some great changes made in terms of parking, density, and community benefits. Office projects tend to bring more traffic during rush hours so this sounds like a winner for the city as a whole despite the thoughts of some in the area which, in reality, likely would be protesting any change to that site.

    If Santa Ana residents want nice things, we need to be willing to have high end projects come into the area especially in areas that already have higher end houses in it as it does not seem to be displacing lower priced residents.

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